- Launch of international design competition for Pirelli 39
- Shortlist of architects to build Pirelli 35 announced
- More than 100 firms involved in the tender process for Porta Nuova Gioia’s new masterplan
Milan, 25 November 2019 – COIMA SGR – Italy’s leading Real Estate investment, development and management company – concluded the purchase of Pirelli 39 from the Municipal Authority of Milan. COIMA SGR won the public auction for the contract of the building in March 2019 for a total value of €194 million. This brings the overall public contribution generated by COIMA over the last ten years to €450 million.
The public auction of the building, known as 'Pirellino', attracted five of the largest Italian and international operators in the real estate and financial sectors. The purchase was completed by the COIMA Opportunity Fund II ('COIMA'), the largest ever discretionary real estate fund dedicated to Italy, which concluded its capital raising in excess of €750 million gaining an investment capacity in excess of €1.5 billion. The fund's investors include major national and international institutional investors, including Ivanhoe Cambridge (Cassa Depositi del Quebec), Poste Vita, Inarcassa and a leading Asian Sovereign Fund.
Porta Nuova Gioia continues to take shape, as COIMA SGR completes acquisitions in the area, which spreads over 260,000 sq.m. COIMA SGR plans total investments in excess of €1 billion in the area, with €350 million of tender contracts overall and €40 million in investments in architecture.
Both Pirelli 39 – a 90 metre high development area of more than 60,000 sq.m., with 26 floors and a low rise building spanning Via Melchiorre Gioia – and the adjacent public spaces are the subject of an open international design competition announced by COIMA SGR today. The competition will be rolled out in stages: a pre-qualification round will take place by the end of December, with five firms shortlisted; the subsequent concept phase will lead to bids being finalised, with the winner being announced in the first quarter of 2020. The jury will be comprised of five members, including two external figures. Architect Leopoldo Freyrie will handle coordination of the competition in accordance with the procedures generally adopted in public selection processes. More information on these procedures can be found on www.coima.com.
The international competition for Pirelli 35 has reached the shortlist stage: this involves the acquisition of the former Telecom building by COIMA SGR via the COFII fund from Deka Immobilien Investment GmbH for €130 million. Of fifteen firms to have qualified, the three finalists are KPF, Snohetta and Park. The project will involve the complete redevelopment and repositioning of the building, which has nine floors above ground and two underground, covering over 40,000 sq.m.. The building’s intended use for the services sector remain unchanged. Much attention will be afforded to the building's integration into the system of public spaces in Porta Nuova due to its position and views over the ‘Library of Trees’. The competition winner will be announced in January 2020, with construction work commencing in 2021 and completion in 2022.
Following the 2017 acquisition of the land and building rights for €78.9 million, the Gioia 20 project has also reached an advanced stage. Architectural firm Studio Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel have been retained to plan and design the project with an overall investment of more than €270 million.
Construction of the area‘s 32,000 sq.m. of two new-generation office buildings is scheduled to start in 2020, with handover scheduled for 2022. An international competition was run for the design of the two buildings, with four Italian firms included amongst the fifty companies invited to propose ideas for the redevelopment of the area with the same quality standards as those used in Porta Nuova.
The two new buildings will be adjacent to Gioia 22, the skyscraper headquarters that COIMA is building with the help of the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund, a lead global investor in the real estate sector. Designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects (who designed Porta Nuova and UniCredit offices), the tower – a model example of energy efficiency – will have 26 floors above ground and four levels underground, with an overall gross surface of more than 68,000 sq.m. and is due to be completed in 2020.
In May 2019, COIMA started work on a single masterplan for the Porta Nuova Gioia area, with the objective of completing and extending the Porta Nuova district. This has been coordinated by Gregg Jones at Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, together with Patricia Viel from Studio Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel; Chris Choa from London Olympic planners AECOM; and Ibrahim Ibrahim from architects Portland, with landscape architects Jim Burnett from OJB and Andreas Kipar from Land.
The masterplan, including but not limited to the projects listed above, was officially logged at the Municipal Authority of Milan in July, and has been approved by the Landscape Committee on the basis of the merits of the work proposed. It will be presented in spring 2020.
Manfredi Catella, Founder and CEO of COIMA SGR says: “Through more than three billion euros of investments, we have turned Porta Nuova and Porta Nuova Gioia district into one of the most advanced urban innovation laboratories on a global level. Our objective is to develop architecture and technology to reduce environmental impact and support the creation of a broader and more inclusive community. With its social and cultural programme, Milan’s Biblioteca deli Alberi becomes a strategic, public space reconnecting the surrounding districts. The park allows an urban reconnection between all the large-scale redevelopment projects along the historic railroad corridor connecting the Central Station to Milan Innovation District”.
“These projects see us adding to the development of the Garibaldi-Isola axis seen over the last ten years, that in the Gioia-Central Station direction” says town planning Councillor Pierfrancesco Maran. “The intention behind establishing the identity of the new buildings via international competitions is very much to guarantee high standards in terms of design and the environment in harmony and seamlessly with what has already been achieved”.
“The sale of the Pirellino is an important development for the city, and not just from the point of view of town planning” explains Councillor for State Property Roberto Tasca, adding “for the first time, the Government has held an auction for the sale of one of its properties with large-scale international investors showing interest. It is the city that benefits from this strategy, seeing completion of a town-planning project with the revival of the Pirellino and, at the same time, benefitting from increased financial resources that are reinvested in order to improve services for everyone”.
