Nextensa buys Proximus towers for €62.5 million

Proximus will move its headquarters to Tour & Taxis in Brussels following the sale of its towers by Brussels-North station to Nextensa for €62.5 million.

Nextensa plans to redevelop the 115,000m² office towers, renaming them Bel Towers and offering mixed purpose space for offices, residential use, public facilities, shops and restaurants.

Proximus had already reached an agreement with project developer Immobel a few years ago for €143 million at the time, but the deal fell through last summer, forcing Proximus to look for a new buyer.

The price Nextensa offered is much lower than Immobel’s. Proximus refers to “a challenging market context, characterised by high inflation in 2022 and 2023, which led to rising interest rates and construction costs, as well as uncertainty about the evolution of office real estate”.

The telecom company said it had succeeded in “maximising the economic return from the sale of its headquarters”. Should the real estate market recover significantly, the company will receive an additional amount.

Proximus aims to sell more than €500 million worth of non-essential assets by 2027 and has already realised €330 million of this, including €30 million from Immobel for not exercising its purchase option.

The telecoms company signed a 15-year lease for its new headquarters at Tour & Taxis. New office buildings will be constructed there "that will be among the most sustainable in Belgium", the company said.

Proximus will gradually take additional spaces into use such as Hôtel des Douanes and Gare Maritime, with the intention of having the entire Proximus Campus Brussels housed at Tour & Taxis by the end of 2028, for a leased volume of 44,000m².