A landmark building in Uetlihof in Zurich housing thousands of Credit Suisse employees is for sale, but a local interested buyer has backed out.
The city of Zurich was prohibited from offering to purchase the Credit Suisse Uetlihof campus in Zurich after the city's parliament yesterday narrowly rejected a 1.5 billion Swiss franc loan for the purchase of the Uetlihof by 61 to 57 yes votes, as reported by the «NZZ» (behind paywall, in German).
Norwegian Wealth Fund
As finews.com reported in February, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund NBIM, which has owned the building for ten years, wants to sell. NBIM commissioned the Swiss branch of U.S. real estate specialist CBRE to conduct a bidding process, along with SPGI Zurich. NBIM is reported to be asking 1.3 billion Swiss francs for the office property which is 30 percent more than the purchase price.
For opponents of the bill, the Uetlihof is a high-risk property that is too expensive. There were also isolated voices in parliament that because Credit Suisse is the only tenant in the building, it could drop out due to its myriad business problems.
More than 8,000 Credit Suisse employees go about their work each day at the Uetlihof campus, and the bank is contracted to rent the property until 2037 with an option to extend for another 15. According to media reports, the city council was primarily interested in the site as a long-term building land reserve. For the second round of bidding, the city would have had to submit a binding bid. But with the loan rejected it is throwing in the towel.
