Bouwinvest Acquires Utrecht’s Central Park Office Building Development from AG/APF Joint Venture

The Bouwinvest Office Fund has acquired the to be developed 28,000 m2 ‘Central Park’ office building at the heart of Utrecht’s CBD from a joint venture between AFP International and Angelo Grodon, under an agreement signed on Monday.

Bas Jochims, director Office and Hotel Investments at Bouwinvest, said: “The Office Fund focuses on sustainable multi-tenant buildings that are easily accessible by public transport and car in the four major Dutch cities, whilst pursuing a well-balanced asset allocation strategy. Utrecht’s Central Park meets all these conditions.”

Central Park will extend over 22 floors and also has 500 m² of catering facilities and 370 parking spaces at a site directly adjoining Utrecht’s Central Station and its City Hall. Two floors of the building are dedicated to networking and knowledge sharing, or simply socialising for occupiers, within a park-like environment. Conference rooms for meetings and events are also available to rent.

Wiggert Karreman, Managing Director APF International, said: “Central Park is situated in the middle of Utrecht’s Central Business District and we are enthusiastically contributing to the city’s long-term green and sustainable vision for its centre, values which Bouwinvest strongly shares.”

The majority of Central Park’s users will travel by bike or public transport and the building is fitted with a thermal storage installation, which will provide a major part of the power supply together with solar panels on the roof. These sustainability features have contributed to Central Park’s forthcoming BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating.

Utrecht’s mature and dynamic office market is increasingly attracting companies to locate in the city, particularly in the new CBD by the central railway station, which has fast direct connections with Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam -- the largest cities in the central Randstad urban conurbation, as well as other important secondary centres such as Nijmegen, 100 km southeast of Amsterdam.