Campari buys asset from BNP Paribas to move to Milan CBD
Italy’s Campari group has chosen to move from the outskirts of Milan to the CBD. The company, known for its popular Campari and Aperol drinks, has acquired from BNP Paribas REIM a 10,000 sq m asset in the heart of the city that will become its new Italian headquarters.
Campari has paid €110 million for the building, which will be totally refurbished and upgraded in the next few years. The group plans to move its employees into the asset, in corso Europa 2, in 2027.
Campari’s HQ has been in Sesto San Giovanni, a commuter town on the outskirts of Milan, since 2009, but the group is now following the post-pandemic trend to be in the city centre, close to shops and amenities and good public transport links.
In announcing the move to staff, Campari said that “the new offices will be easily reached by employees, global partners, clients and stakeholders”.
BNP Paribas REIM had bought the asset in 2016 for €91 million from the Borromeo, an Italian family office.
“The sale of the corso Europa asset to an international and prestigious company like Campari shows there is interest for a building that has strong fundamentals and is in a strategic location in the centre of Milan,” said Vincenzo Nocerino, CEO, BNP Paribas REIM Italy. “Milan is an increasingly European metropolis, which is essential for a building that will become the headquarters of a great group.”
The 10,000 sq m asset has nine storeys above ground and four underground and faces both corso Europa and Via Larga, two of central Milan’s most well-known streets. Some tenants, like Bpm bank, have already vacated the building, while others, like Commerzbank, will do so in the next few months. Molteni, an Italian design furniture company that has a shop on the ground floor of the building, will also move so that refurbishment work can begin.
The announcement is Bob Kunze-Concewitz’s swansong: the CEO of the group, which he has revitalised and relaunched in his 16 years at the helm, will retire in April this year.
