- Accenture chooses Corso Como Place, the first WELL certified office building in Milan, for its new office space in Milan
- Accenture’s decision to move into Corso Como Place confirms Porta Nuova’s status as an innovation hub: 30 leading brands already present with 35,000 people working in the area, with an expected 30 per cent growth by the end of 2022

Milan, 19 May 2019 – COIMA SGR S.p.A. – the leading Real Estate investment, development and management company – and Accenture have entered into an agreement for the lease of the Corso Como Place tower in Porta Nuova, which will become the consulting firm’s corporate offices.

The building, spanning 15,000 square meters, represents over 75 per cent of the surface area under development in the block. Corso Como Place is currently under regeneration by COIMA and includes the requalification of two existing buildings and the construction of a new pilot building, parts of which will be constructed in wood.

The complex, which was built in the 1950s and previously hosted Unilever’s corporate headquarters, was vacated in 2008 and purchased by COIMA in 2016. The extended regeneration program includes the elimination of the fences surrounding the block and reconnecting the development with the surrounding area. The project will also revive an important portion of pedestrian areas linking Fondazione Feltrinelli, developed by COIMA and the Feltrinelli family, with Piazza Gae Aulenti.

The lease will have a term of several years, with handover of the spaces expected to take place in 2020.

“The redevelopment of Corso Como Place plays an important role in reconnecting Piazza Gae Aulenti to the headquarters of Fondazione Feltrinelli. Once the fences isolating the complex from the rest of the district have been removed, COIMA will develop a new pedestrian area leading to Corso Como. We are pleased that Accenture has chosen Corso Como Place for its Milan corporate office, showing its dedication to urban innovation. With Corso Como Place we will have an innovative, WELL certified building, putting Milan on the map of the world’s most advanced cities in the field of technological and territorial experimentation” remarked Manfredi Catella, Founder and CEO of COIMA SGR.

Corso Como Place was developed to become a pilot technological infrastructure project through the integration of a built-in digital structure: a building in which the use of technology provides concrete services to people. Through the use of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies ensuring broad and accurate monitoring of the main wellness parameters (temperature, humidity, sound pressure, daylight level, carbon dioxide, etc.), and through the development of an Application Program Interface (API), it will be possible to experience office spaces in a new interactive, customizable and comfortable way. The use of data gathered by the IoT infrastructure will enable COIMA and Accenture to achieve an unprecedented level of control of the building, enabling them to monitor and intervene to an optimal working environment.

In terms of sustainability, the project entails the application of COIMA Roots’ metrics, COIMA’s holistic approach to real estate development which aims to generate, measure, monitor and provide long-term sustainable, economic and social performance through precise key indicators based upon ESG parameters.

With Accenture’s new headquarters, COIMA reaffirms its position as national leader in the development of headquarters on behalf of national and international brands, having developed over 20 headquarters totaling 200,000 sqm over the past ten years. Porta Nuova reaffirms its status as a national innovation hub with over 30 brands present, and over 35,000 people. The sectors represented include: financial services (UniCredit, BNP Paribas, AXA, HSBC, China Construction Bank, Unipol SAI, Bank of New York Mellon, etc.), technology and telecommunications (IBM, Microsoft, Samsung, Amazon, Google, LinkedIn, Fintech, etc...), professional services (Accenture, KPMG), the pharmaceutical sector (Santen, Amgen, Angelini), fashion (Versace, Moschino, Nike), engineering & energy (Maire Tecnimont) and research (Fondazione Feltrinelli).

COIMA expects the number of workers in the Porta Nuova area to rise by over 30 per cent by the end of 2022, supported by the addition of new management headquarters.

The redevelopment of Corso Como Place is being pursued through the Porta Nuova Bonnet real estate fund, whose investors are the development fund COIMA Opportunity Fund II, which represents the largest urban regeneration investment fund dedicated to Italy, and the listed real estate company COIMA RES. The design of Corso Como Place, which is being handled by the London firm PLP Architecture, was conceived and developed by COIMA SRL.

In this transaction, COIMA was advised by the law firm Shearman & Sterling.