ABN AMRO has agreed to sell its head office on Gustav Mahlerlaan in Amsterdam to real estate investor Victory Group in a sale and lease back transaction.
The sale of the building, also known as the Gustav Mahler, had already been announced in November 2020, as was the redevelopment of the office on the Foppingadreef in Amsterdam Zuidoost into the bank’s sustainable new home base from 2025.
Victory Group will pay EUR 765 million for the property, subject to favorable lease conditions for the coming years, during which ABN AMRO will rent the entire Gustav Mahler building during the renovation of the Foppingadreef, which is expected to be completed in 2025.
After that, most of ABN AMRO’s employees will move to the bank’s new home base in Zuidoost and the bank will rent another part of the Gustav Mahler building, which will also remain the official head office and a location to receive customers. The transaction will generate a pre-tax book profit of EUR 338 million for ABN AMRO, which will be recorded in Q4 of 2021.
The sale of the Gustav Mahler property is the end of a careful process in which several interested parties have proposed plans and made bids. ABN AMRO has explicitly taken into account the wishes of the City of Amsterdam with regard to the future quality of life and diversity of the Zuidas in the solicitation and selection process. As a future tenant of part of the redeveloped building, the bank itself has imposed additional sustainability requirements on the plans of the buyer and on the reuse of the characteristic circular pavilion Circl.
A small team from ABN AMRO Corporate Banking has arranged the financing for the real estate transaction.
ABN AMRO CEO Robert Swaak: ‘As one of the founders of the still young Amsterdam business district Zuidas, we feel a great responsibility for the future of the area. With the plans that Victory Group has submitted to us together with developer G&S Vastgoed for the redevelopment of our head office and adding functions to the area, the Zuidas can take great steps towards a more mature working and living environment with a distinctly sustainable character. In the coming period we will work hard to redevelop our current building on the Foppingadreef into a ‘beyond Paris-proof’ new home base. As I look forward as CEO of the bank, I am extremely proud to remain a permanent resident of these two beautiful places in the city for many years to come.’
