After several months at a standstill, the huge Botanica development in Cloche d’Or has found a new lease on life.
Verona Development announced in a press release on Tuesday that it was restarting work on the 60,000 square metre service sector project, which suffered from the financial difficulties of its former developer, the Belgian proprety group Codic.
Future of Botanica project at Cloche d’Or unclear
The project was suspended in 2025, even though the first foundations had just been laid as Codic’s inability to put together financial guarantees meant bank financing was withdrawn. The Belgian developer was subsequently placed under reorganisation proceedings by a bankruptcy court in Brussels, paving the way for a partial resumption of its activities.
Codic’s Luxembourg subsidiary was rescued, its employees taken on, and the group’s stake in the Verona Development fund sold to new investors. But the future of the Botanica project remained uncertain.
Consortium of investors
Verona Development now says it is able to relaunch the project thanks to the support of a consortium of “leading investors”, with a financial structure deemed sufficient to bring the operation to a successful conclusion. The fund claimed that it now has the necessary foundations to secure the project through to completion.
The eight construction projects transforming the Cloche d’Or district
Plans still call for the construction of nine buildings combining offices, hotels, services and shops, organised around a 2.1 hectare central park. Developers said it will stand out for “the quality of its location, the scale of its landscaped areas and the diversity of its uses.”
According to Verona Development, 20% of the first phase of the project is already pre-let, an encouraging sign in a changing office market. For the property fund, this confirms “the attractiveness of the project and its strategic location within the Cloche d’Or”.
Lombard Odier to move Luxembourg operations to Cloche d’Or in 2027
New investors
To ensure the effective relaunch of the project, Verona Development has entrusted the Luxembourg company Luxred with the task of “delegated project management and commercial coordination.” The stated aim is to quickly regain operational control of the project, structure its execution and accelerate its commercialisation.
“Botanica is a project that we have supported with conviction from the outset,” stated Jérôme Dhamelincourt, chairman of Verona Development, in the announcement.
Luxred’s directors believe that the project meets current market expectations, particularly in terms of flexibility, sustainability and quality of workspaces. “”Botanica has very solid fundamentals, both in terms of its location and its potential for use,” stated Olivier Bastin, Luxred’s founding partner.
Lifting the lid on new Cloche d’Or development
It now remains to be seen when work will actually resume on the site and whether the initial timetable, which envisaged gradual completion by 2030, can be kept to. In Luxembourg City, Botanica is not the only Codic project to have been put on hold in recent months: the projects The View (at the Cloche d’Or) and Caractères (in the Gare district) had never gotten off the ground.
(This article was originally published by Virgule. Translated with the aid of an AI tool and reviewed and edited by Aaron Grunwald.)
