Real estate brokers in charge of selling the former US Embassy building in Oslo have received numerous bids for the property. Prices offered suggest the building can sell for as much as a half-billion kroner (USD 64 million).
The embassy sits on a prime location just across from the Royal Palace park and the Nobel Institute on the fringe of downtown. The city’s historic preservation agency Byantikvaren, which has applied for a protection order called fredning that would severely restrict any changes to the property, has called the building “an architectural pearl.”
“I can say that interest is enormous,” John Olof Solberg, chief executive of CBRE selling the embassy on behalf of the US government, told newspaper Finansavisen. The property was appraised at around NOK 290 million, but bids are coming in at round NOK 450 million despite the looming restrictions tied to a preservation order.
“We’re not in the final bidding round yet,” Solberg said, “but hope to be so in a few weeks.” The building served as the US Embassy from 1959 until earlier this year, when the US’ diplomatic staff in Norway moved to a new, much larger and more secure embassy in Oslo’s Huseby district.
newsinenglish.no staff
