GMP, Infinorsa, GreenOak Make It to the Final Bidding For Saint Gobain Skyscraper

9/12/2014 – El Confidencial

Next great battle is taking place in the Azca complex. One of its real estate jewels, known as Torre Saint Gobain and situated at 77 Castellana street (pictured second from the left), will soon get to know the name of its new owner.

Few days back, an alluring plot in this area was acquired by El Corte Inglés for 136 million euros.

The property up for grabs belongs to BBVA. Of the juicy bids it had received, the bank has picked three finalists: GMP, Infinorsa and GreenOak. Their offers are said to oscillate around €90 million, an upper-level in the 70-to-100 million euro range established by the property’s underwriters, the entity and CBRE Spain.

In the meantime, such industry tycoons as Colonial or Pontegadea were left out of the tender process.

GMP is the owner of the Torre BBVA black tower (first on the left), located just in front of the building for sale. In turn, Infinorsa holds Torre Europa, next eye-catching skyscraper of the office area. However, the most prominent building belongs to aforementioned PontegadeaTorre Picasso.

Sources from the market assure that submitted prices indicate rents of some 35 euros a square meter, in order to obtain good return rates. To compare, today’s prices in the complex vary from 20 to 25 euros per square meter.

The building is nearly 70 meters tall, has 18 stories above the ground level and a 16.000 square meter area. Apart from that, it disposes of six underground stories destined for parking lots, storage rooms, facilities and services.

In 2003, the property was bought by a real estate fund of BBVA for 87.5 million euros. However, more than ten years later, the unit is in need of a comprehensive refurbishment, a cost to be borne by the buyer.

The Ederra building, as it is called inside Azca, once housed the Saint Gobain Cristalería glassware group‘s Spanish headquarters. Last year, the firm’s rental agreement expired and the French tenant moved to its new premises at 132 Principe de Vergara street.

 

Original story: El Confidencial (by R. Ugalde & E. Sanz)

Translation: AURA REE