Swiss Life Asset Managers and Allianz Immovalor Acquire 16,000-Sqm Massilia Logistics Park in Marseille

Swiss Life Asset Managers France and Allianz Immovalor have acquired the Massilia urban logistics park in Marseille through a forward-purchase agreement, the firms announced Sept. 16, continuing the build-out of their jointly managed Last Mile Logistics fund. The 16,000-square-meter development, located in the city's 15th arrondissement, is being delivered by brownfield specialist Brownfields on a portion of the former Saint-Louis Sucre refinery site and is scheduled for completion in early 2028.

Deal Structure and Fund Context

The acquisition was executed en VEFA — a French forward-purchase structure in which the buyer acquires a property under construction — on behalf of the Last Mile Logistics fund, which Swiss Life Asset Managers France and Allianz Immovalor recently opened to external institutional investors. The fund is regulated by France's Autorité des marchés financiers and is designed to target urban and last-mile logistics assets across major French metropolitan areas.

Massilia represents the fund's entry into the Marseille market, following earlier acquisitions in Lyon, Toulouse and Gennevilliers. In February 2026, the partners acquired two logistics warehouses totaling 11,412 square meters in the Lyon and Toulouse agglomerations through a sale-leaseback with hygiene solutions group Paredes Orapi. A separate transaction in January 2026 added an activities and logistics building in Gennevilliers, in the Hauts-de-Seine department of Greater Paris, developed by Spirit Entreprises.

In connection with the Massilia acquisition, Swiss Life Asset Managers France was advised by Les Notaires du Trocadéro, Etyo and Cushman & Wakefield.

Property Configuration and Location

The Massilia park will comprise two buildings. The main structure will span approximately 14,900 square meters across two levels, reflecting the multi-storey design increasingly favored for dense urban logistics environments. A separate, single-storey annex will complete the park's footprint, bringing total lettable area to 16,000 square meters at delivery.

The project is situated in the zone industrielle d'Arnavant, one of Marseille's primary logistics and industrial clusters, which is home to approximately 800 companies. The site offers direct access to the A7 and A55 motorways, the Capitaine Gèze multimodal hub and the Port of Marseille, positioning it to serve both urban distribution and broader regional logistics demand. Marseille is France's second-largest city.

Forty percent of the park's leasable area has already been pre-let to an unnamed international player specializing in construction solutions. Discussions are ongoing for the remaining space.

ESG Features and Heritage Preservation

Massilia is targeting BREEAM Excellent certification and will incorporate rooftop photovoltaic panels. The project will preserve and enhance more than 12,700 square meters of green space, including a classified woodland area and more than 150 existing trees on the site.

The development also carries a heritage dimension. The Saint-Louis Sucre refinery has operated on the site since 1857 and was shuttered in 2015 before Brownfields acquired it in 2022 for conversion to logistics and film studio uses. The Massilia project will conserve and restore select historic façades from the original industrial complex, integrating industrial heritage preservation into the logistics redevelopment.

Executive Commentary

"With Massilia, we are investing in an asset that brings together the fundamentals of urban logistics: a strategic location, high-performance design, strong environmental ambition and a concrete response to last-mile needs," a Swiss Life Asset Managers France representative said in the announcement. "This project illustrates our conviction: sustainable assets, well located and useful to their territories, are those that will create tomorrow's value for our investors."

An Allianz Immovalor representative added that the acquisition "strengthens the network at the heart of France's main economic hubs," noting that the asset's location and connections to distribution networks enable coverage of the Marseille region and that the Last Mile Logistics portfolio "now offers exposure to last-mile logistics in France's main metropolitan areas."

Market Positioning

The Massilia transaction reflects broader institutional appetite for infill urban logistics assets in French regional cities, where available land for new logistics development is constrained and demand from e-commerce and urban delivery operators continues to grow. The multi-storey configuration of the main building addresses the challenge of maximizing leasable area on a compact urban site, a design approach that has gained traction in European last-mile logistics development. The fund's sequential acquisitions across Lyon, Toulouse, Greater Paris and now Marseille indicate a deliberate strategy to establish coverage across France's largest metropolitan economies.