-By Pratyasha sarkar
Luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault has resumed his shopping spree, but this time it was for real estate rather than clothing. He is the chairman and CEO of LVMH, which has acquired the large structure housing the flagship Louis Vuitton shop on Champs Élysées.
Gecina, a publicly traded real estate business, sold the building to LVMH. It is located at 101 Champs Elysées, on the corner of Avenue George V. Arnault purchased the Art Déco building for roughly €770 million, according to real estate sources, according to FashionNetwork.com. While one broker speculated that the purchase price may have even reached €900 million.
The purchase is the most recent transaction in a real estate buying binge in Paris that has seen Arnault and his fiercest adversary, François-Henri Pinault, CEO of luxury group Kering, spend a combined total of an estimated €2.4 billion over the past nine months.
Around 9.400 square metres make up the structure at 101 Champs Elysées, containing 4,000 square metres of offices, 3,885 square metres of retail space, and an additional 1,200 square metres for a nightclub and archive space. Consequently, the average selling price per square metre exceeded €80,000. The 2006 renovation of this seven-story building made it stand out thanks to a massive LV logo on its dome.
Gecina, which Beat Ortega has been running for the past year, is known for routinely changing its portfolio. Although selling this historic structure and site would be like selling a family heirloom. The only child of the luxury brand’s founder, Georges Vuitton, coincidentally ordered 101 Champs-Élysées from architect Charles Henri Besnard in the 1920s. In a release, Gecina stated that the building had been sold, although it omitted the name of the purchaser.
A knowledgeable French real estate website, CFNews Immo, reports that the structure brings in €16.5 million in annual rent, which equates to a meagre 2% annual return! Currently, the average yield for houses in central Paris is roughly 3.5%. Arnault, who has a solid record for spending top price for distinctive brands and properties and making them appear like excellent purchases within a decade, most likely was unfazed by this, though.
