The Belgian Catholic Church recently completed a million-euro purchase for an office building in Brussels, expanding its grip on the real estate market in the city's European Quarter.
For a purchase estimated at around €25 million, the Interdiocesan Centre of Belgium added a new addition to the list of buildings the registered non-profit already owns on Rue Guimard, near Parc de Bruxelles.
The centre, which is itself headquartered at Rue Guimard 1, acquired the 9-story corner building standing at number 7, which houses around a dozen tenants, including real estate bureaus of French multinational bank BNP Paribas.
Rue Guimard has been a central location in the church's real estate strategy in Brussels' EU quarter, with the seat of the Dutch-speaking Catholic Education directorate, as well as a series of services including the press, judicial, buildings also located on that street.
Additionally, the centre also owns around a dozen meeting rooms to let and it also runs the Guimard Shop bookshop, located at number 1.
The acquisition of the building follows plans by the centre, which functions as the seat of the permanent organ of Roman Catholic bishops of Belgium, to expand the services already operating in nearby offices, business daily L'Echo reports.
Besides expanding its presence in the EU Quarter, the paper reports that the purchase also extends the centre's property ownership towards Etterbeek, where it also owns a series of real estate assets.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
