There has been another major transaction in the domain of shared workspaces. WeWork, which has over 400 sites across the world, has signed a lease contact for around 16,500 m² of space in ‘Multi Tower’, the twin building located at the Place de Brouckère in the pedestrianised part of the centre of Brussels, and previously often referred to as the ‘Philips Tower’.Multi Tower is a major renovation project by Whitewood, which acquired the building at the end of 2015 with its New York based investment partner DW Partners LP. When the renovation is complete, Multi Tower will offer some 44,000 m² of office space and retail units, and is aiming for BREEAM Excellent certification. It was the winner of the Brussels ‘be-Exemplary’ prize in 2017 for its contribution to the circular economy. Within the same philosophy, Whitewood CEO Frédéric Van der Planken talks of his delight at welcoming WeWork, because the ambition for Multi Tower was to create a multi-cultural and diversified aspect for the building. Shared workspaces now represent a major slice of all office transactions (and therefore of space occupied) across Europe. Some calculations put the proportion of transacted space in this type of occupation at around 20% of all transacted space in certain areas.Whitewood is a private real estate investment company founded in 2008 with activities as a local partner for institutional investors in Belgium and the Netherlands. It currently has an investment portfolio under management of 750 million Euros spread across 60 buildings.Acting for the various partners to the transaction were Cushman & Wakefield, Linklaters and CMS.
Linklaters has signed a lease for 750 million sqm in the former The Multi Tower in Belgium . Philips Tower is currently undergoing a major renovation to transform the property into a mixed use development.