Wanda, Four Seasons to Bring Super Luxury to Madrid

13/01/2014 – El Economista

Two new hotels, one belonging to Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin and his Wanda group which is set to open its doors inside the iconic Edificio España building (pictured on the right), and the other, to be occupied by Four Seasons, to open in the so-called Canalejas triangle, will foreseebly offer the first apartments having access to top-end hotel amenities.

Potential buyers of the flats must obviously have a great purchasing power. Normally, they would be businessmen seeking second residences providing them with privacy and, at the same time, exclusive hotel services.

In addition, an owner of such an apartment could ask for preparing the dwelling for their arrival at the city or doing some necessary fittings and fixtures.

The Mixed Use

This kind of property model has been already pursued in the past but finally it didn’t pan out. In 2007, Portugese family Queiroz Pereira, the owners of the Ritz in Lisboa or the Hotel Villamagna in Madrid, reduced the number of keys to 110 and turned the rest of the rooms into luxury apartments, aiming at intending 100% of the available space for them. Though, in the end, they only renovated the property and stood by the traditional use of the property.

“Right now, none of the establishments combines a luxury hotel with high-end dwelling units, like in other cities. In Madrid, we only find commercial properties of mixed use, such as one of the Cuatro Torres standing out in the skyline of the northern part of the capital. Owned by Sacyr, the skyscraper houses a five-star Hotel Eurostar Madrid Tower, while the rest of the building is leased to consulting firm PwC ”, explained Patricio Palomar, Alternative Investment head at CBRE.

 

Original story: El Economista (by Virginia Martinez & Alba Brualla)

Translation: AURA REE