DECRYPTION – Renovated after its acquisition by the Weinberg and Henderson funds, the building is now 95% occupied. A performance in this neighborhood.
La Grande Arche de La Défense, desired and inaugurated by President François Mitterrand in 1989, is a must in the Parisian landscape. It marks the culmination of the axis which begins with the Louvre, passes by the obelisk of Concorde, then the Arc de Triomphe before ending at La Défense.
The Grande Arche is however not only an architectural object. It is also a workplace. In total, the South pillar, owned by the State, and the North pillar, which is private, represent no less than 80,000 m2 of office space. Over the years, the building had aged. In the North, the situation was all the more complicated as there were several owners, which made any renovation project complicated to carry out.
Consolidation of the North pillar
“We perceived in 2019 that the building had enormous potential, symbolically, but not only”, explains Jean-Philippe Olgiati, partner and managing director of real estate activities at Weinberg Capital Partners. In 2019, the company created a joint venture with the British Henderson Park in order to « remembrer » the North pillar, that is to say to buy back the shares of the various owners, then to renovate it entirely. The operation is now coming to an end.
“We have completely repositioned the building, i.e. 45,000 m2 of offices, with success since we now have a 95% occupancy rate”, welcomes Jean-Philippe Olgiati. A remarkable performance, since the La Défense district now has a vacancy rate of 14%. Above all, the partners have managed to sign 28,000 m2 of leases over the past 18 months, at the end of the Covid crisis. This represents no less than 30% of leases for areas of 5,000 m2 or less in La Défense, over the same period. “La Grande Arche is an iconic building, and it is easy to attract attention with itspecifies the head of real estate at Weinberg Capital. It was then up to us to show that we could offer a product that met the current needs of companies ».
Service area
The office floors have been completely restructured: massive presence of open space, decompartmentalization, modernization. Above all, a space of 3,000 m2 of services – a business center, an auditorium, a café, a restaurant, a gym or a bicycle repair shop – was created in order to meet the needs of users. Enough to attract start-ups, incubators, schools and training centers. In all, 26 tenants who show that a building with character, brought up to date, is capable of attracting people to La Défense.