Who’s Who In The Cinco Torres?

13 January 2017 – Cinco Días

The future Torre Caleido, whose plans were unveiled on Tuesday by Inmobiliaria Espacio (Grupo Villar Mir), will add 70,000 m2 of real estate space in the area known as the Cuatro Torres complex. As such, there will be five skyscrapers at the top of the Paseo de la Castellana from 2019, which means that Madrid’s skyline will change once again. In total, the five towers will supply around 300,000 m2 of space to companies.

Although when the plans were first presented for these skyscrapers in Madrid, many people had their doubts regarding their success, the reality is that the four towers are almost fully occupied now and the two main tenants for the fifth tower have already been confirmed.

Caleido will have 70,000 m2 of space in total and, unlike the neighbouring towers, will be used for social purposes on land granted by the Town Hall of Madrid to Grupo Villar Mir for 75 years. (…).

The new IE University campus will occupy 48,000 m2. And the lower platform will be home to a Quirón Salud clinic, covering 11,000 m2 and dedicated to preventative and sports medicine. The tower will also house a retail and restaurant area, which will come as a real blessing for the employees who work in the area, given that they have barely any services at the moment. The retail space has not been leased yet. In addition, Grupo Villar Mir is looking for possible partners with whom it can undertake the work, which will begin within the next few months.

The history of the four towers, on the plot of land that used to house Real Madrid’s former Ciudad Deportiva at the northern end of the Paseo de la Castellana, began commercially in 2008, when the first skyscrapers were completed.

One of them is the current Torre Cepsa…designed by Norman Foster, which was initially intended to house the headquarters of Repsol, but the oil and gas company sold it to Bankia for €815 million before the real estate bubble burst. The now nationalised bank, in turn, leased the building to Cepsa, with the option to buy it…and that company, in turn, sold it in 2016 to Pontegadea, the family office owned by Amancio Ortega for €490 million. (…).

At the end of 2015, Torrespacio, designed by Henry N. Cobb and promoted by Inmobiliaria Espacio, was also sold to the Philippine wine group Emperador for €558 million. (…). It has an occupancy rate of 86%.

Prior to that, Torre PwC also changed hands. (…). It houses the 5-star Eurostars Madrid Tower Hotel and the offices of the consultancy firm PwC, which moved in to occupy the upper floors in 2011. (…). It is 236 m tall, has a surface area of 50,000 m2 and was designed by the architects Carlos Rubio Carvajal and Enrique Álvarez-Sala.

Torre Cristal, the tallest building in Spain at 250 m2 tall, is the only tower that has not changed hands since it was built – it is owned by Mutua Madrileña (…). Designed by César Pelli, the skyscraper was conceived to house several tenants and currently has an 85% occupancy rate. The consultancy firm KPMG now occupies one third of the property, after moving there last year from Azca. Other tenants include MasterCard, Red Hat, Cerner, Commerzbank, Seat, Agbar and ThyssenKrupp, amongst others.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake