Basel: Novartis sells part of the Klybeck quarter

According to Central Real Estate, the site now being sold is the former factory premises of Ciba-Geigy, now Novartis. The site comprises more than 40 buildings, only some of which are still in industrial use. It comprises six partially contiguous plots of land spread throughout the Klybeck quarter, some of which also border directly on the Rhine and Wiese rivers.

Central Real Estate is a real estate investment company newly founded by Baloise, Zug Pension Fund, Credit Suisse Investment Foundation and J. Safra Sarasin Investment Foundation as well as other Swiss pension funds. For the site development, the company has secured support from Mettler2Invest, Nova Property Fund Management and Credit Suisse Asset Management. Niederer Kraft Frey on the buyer side and SPG Intercity on the seller side acted as advisors in the deal.

SPG Intercity Zurich AG / Cushman & Wakefield was commissioned by the seller at the beginning of 2018 to evaluate the site and to examine a possible sale of the partial site. Subsequently, SPG Intercity Zurich was commissioned to handle the sale as lead advisor. "Due to the size and complexity of this transaction and the number of parties involved in the project, this sales process was very time-consuming and extremely challenging for all parties involved," says SPG Intercity. "Arguably one of the largest brownfield sites in Switzerland has been sold," says CEO Robert Hauri.

In 2016, the two chemical companies Novartis and BASF, as landowners, and the canton of Basel-Stadt signed the klybeckplus planning agreement for the development of the site. A new urban quarter is to be built on a total of around 300,000 square meters. Central Real Estate will take over the obligations from Novartis and continue the planning as agreed, according to the company. (ah/mr)