Former Liberation headquarters in famous “Le Marais” district, Paris, acquired by pan-European investment manager MARK. Mid-20th century building will be transformed by ASSEMBLY into contemporary office space with industry-leading sustainability credentials.
Located on Rue Béranger in Le Marais, less than a two minute walk from the public transport hub of Place de la Republique, the building served as Liberation’s headquarters until 2015 and has been vacant since. Built in the 1950s originally as a multi-storey car park, it was partially redeveloped into a nine-floor office block in the 1980s to host the newspaper.
As part of the fund’s low-carbon regeneration strategy, MARK will focus on obtaining the Low-Carbon Building Renovation (BBCA) label during the redevelopment phase, and the highest environmental certifications available post-completion, including BREEAM.
A green loan has been agreed with HSBC Continental Europe to finance the project. Loan benefits from a dedicated Green Framework on which an ESG rating agency has provided an independent Second Party Opinion.
Launched in 2022, MPUR will target €750m in assets under management over the next three years. It seeks to restructure, extend and convert well-located but obsolete or underutilised buildings into prime commercial spaces with unrivalled ESG credentials. The fund aims to be ISR labelled by October of this year – a benchmarking system introduced by the French government in 2016 which identifies investment funds clearly demonstrating social impact and sustainable development benefits.
© Luka Pinaut