The company L’Escale Liège is investing 18 million euros in a major real estate project at Airport City. This initial investment is the successful outcome of the joint efforts of SOWAER and Liege Airport.
Today, Monday 13 March, in the presence of Mr Maxime Prévot, Vice President and Minister of Public Works and Areas of Economic Activity, and in collaboration with Liege Airport, SOWAER (Société Wallonne des Aéroports – Walloon Airports Authority), is signing its first real estate transaction. SOWAER is active in the economic development of 470 hectares of business parks around Liege Airport.
Located north of the runways, Flexport City is devoted to activities using the infrastructures of the airport in relation to air freight: it is currently offering investors 28 hectares of fully equipped lots.
To the south of the airport, Airport City is devoted to office-based activities and those linked to passenger transport: it currently has 11.5 hectares available.
L’Escale Liège SA is the first company to invest in Airport City. It is a company specialised in real estate development and was formed as the result of an association between two companies: Project2 NV, a real estate developer, and Bernard Construction SA, a construction company based in Liege.
The latter company will establish a large-scale real estate project covering 1.5 hectares to the south of Liege Airport.
In all, this will entail 3 rectangular buildings 57 m long by 14 m wide on stilts, each having 4 floors with 820 sq. m. of offices. These will be completed by a square building with 8 floors including full service provision, meeting rooms and terraces looking out on to the wooded landscape.
A major first step
This transaction is the result of close collaboration between Liege Airport and SOWAER through the Land in Liege unit (http://landinliege.com/fr/), responsible for marketing and developing the Flexport City and Airport City business parks situated near the airport.
The planned investment amounts to a total of € 18,000,000, € 5,000,000 of which will be to construct the first building. Work is planned to begin in October 2017 with delivery of this first building provisionally scheduled for the end of 2018.
“This large-scale real estate project is a major first step towards the successful commercialisation
of our areas of economic activity”, says Luc Vuylsteke, Chairman of the Executive Board of SOWAER. “These sleek buildings with green roofs will undoubtedly enhance the Airport City area.
Negotiations are also under way for around ten hectares with developers specialised in logistics, and other investments should be finalised in the course of this year in Flexport City.”
An increasingly attractive airport
Luc Partoune, CEO of Liege Airport, is happy to observe that this investment confirms the attractiveness of the airport: “All cargo airports of consequence throughout the world have consolidated their growth by developing a second line with new logistics, transport and services companies and provision of office space. I have had the opportunity to see for myself the quality of the buildings constructed by Project2 at Antwerp. This is a very promising partnership for the future of Airport City.”
Marie-Dominique Simonet, President of the airport, is also keen to underline the prospects opened up by this new investment: “The metropolitan area of Liege is undergoing outstanding development in the field of logistics. The Walloon Government has a coherent policy, and this enables us to attract investors who are impressed with the advantages of the airport: its excellent situation,
ideal connectivity with the motorway network, quality services etc. There is a positive ripple effect and the prospects are excellent for the economic development of Liege Airport. I welcome this.”
Minister Maxime PREVOT is pleased to allow the redevelopment of the land acquired by SOWAER for economic purposes as part of the accompanying measures for the residents in the immediate area of the airport. According to him, “the new investment possibilities offered by the development of the business parks will make it possible to extend even further the influence of this regional airport and to anchor the socio-economic redeployment permanently in the Province of Liège thanks to the measures of the Marshall Plan 4.0.”
