Month: September 2016

Carrillo Buys Vorsevi’s Former HQ In Sevilla For €3.6M

30 September 2016 – Real Estate Press

Vorsevi invested more than €12 million in the construction of one of the most sophisticated corporate headquarters on the former site of Expo 92, however, the company’s entry into liquidation has forced the sale of that property for €3.6 million.

The property, located on Calle Leonardo Da Vinci, has a surface area of more than 7,000 sqm spread over five floors, as well as two basements measuring 2,000 sqm, one of which has been fitted out as a car park for 70 vehicles.

The law firm Adalte Abogados has finally managed to sell Vorsevi’s former headquarters to the Cordobés businessman Antonio Carrillo, the telecommunications operator through the company PTV Telecom.

Carrillo made an initial offer for €3.6 million, an amount that no other serious contender had been able to exceed. This meant that the price per square metre amounted to just €515, bringing the value of Vorsevi’s headquarters below even its replacement cost.

Although several investors have analysed this operation, the fact is that the current competition from the Torre Sevilla skyscraper is too strong to risk backing a single building, and as such, it has become clear that, even today, real estate values in la Cartuja remain a historical lows.

Original story: Real Estate Press

Translation: Carmel Drake

Ministry Of Development: Housing Permits Rise By 37%

30 September 2016 – Expansión

The number of housing permits granted by the college of technical architects soared by 37% during the first seven months of the year, to reach 39,497, the best figure between January and July since 2011, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Development.

Despite the increase, residential construction permits are still a long way from the highs recorded in 2007, when at the height of the boom, 448,991 permits were granted between January and July, i.e. 91% more than have been issued so far this year.

The number of housing permits started the year (2016) with an increase of 44% to 4,943. In February, the YoY increase was 35%, as 5,663 permits were granted, whilst in March the figure doubled to 6,176. In April, the increase was more moderate, up by 6.5% to 4,795 permits and in May the number soared by 79% to 7,985. In June, the figure rose by just 0.6% and in July, double-digit growth returned with an increase of 21%.

The total number of permits granted for new builds, renovations and extensions during the seven months to July was 56,407, which represents an increase of 24.6% with respect to 2015.

By property type, the number of permits granted to construct block housing rose by 45.5%, to 29,362 licences, whilst the number granted for family homes grew by 17% to 10,129.

In terms of surface area, the average size of family homes amounted to 200 sqm, whilst the average size of apartments in block housing stood at 117 sqm.

Since the Ministry of Development began to prepare these statistics in 1991, the number of permits reached their historical monthly minimum in August 2013, when just 1,585 permits were granted. The historical monthly maximum was recorded in September 2006, when 126,753 permits were granted.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Fogesa Sells 64,000 sqm Of Buildable Land In Madrid

28 September 2016 – Inmodiario

Aguirre Newman has advised the Fogesa Group on the El Cañaveral operation, involving the sale of more than 64,000 sqm of buildable land (in Madrid). It represents one of the largest residential land transactions to be carried out in Spain in recent years.

The operation, advised by Aguirre Newman, was divided into two lots, containing five plots in total. The plots were located across two blocks, with an estimated capacity for 600/650 homes.

This operation represents a milestone in the sector and consolidates the recovery of the property development segment, which has been gathering steam for around 18 months now. Through this operation, Aguirre Newman reinforces its position as the leading advisor in land sales, following the sale at the beginning of the year of another major land portfolio: five plots in Valdebebas, owned by Parque Empresarial del Olivar, which were sold for more than €50M.

The Fogesa Group was instructed to conduct the orderly liquidation of assets that were previously owned by the cooperative Puerta de O’Donnell, which it has undertaken successfully thanks to the organisation of the 1,000 shareholders and negotiations with the creditors, who have positively valued the offers received during the sales process led by Aguirre Newman.

This is an interesting investment in an urbanisation…that is expected to be one of the main focuses of attraction in Madrid over the next few years. The area of El Cañaveral, where several developments have already been built, is well connected with the centre of Madrid via the R-3 and M-45 motorways.

Original story: Inmodiario

Translation: Carmel Drake

Mitiska REIM Acquires Portal Mediterráneo Retail Park

29 September 2016 – Real Estate Press

Yesterday, Mitiska REIM, the leading specialist investor in retail parks in Europe, announced its entry into the Spanish market with the acquisition of the Portal Mediterráneo retail park in Vinaroz.

It is the first of several acquisitions that Mitiska REIM plans to make in Spain over the next few months, as a result of the improvement in the macroeconomic environment and the increased interest from commercial operators in retail parks in Spain.

Portal Medierráneo is a retail park that has a gross leasable area of 12,400 sqm, spread over 11 stores leased to brands such as Jysk, Bricorama, Norauto and Sprinter, amongst others. Located in Vinaroz, on the east coast of Spain on the border between the Community of Valencia and Cataluña it has a catchment area of 130,000 people, which increases to 250,000 during the summer. Similarly, Portal Mediterráneo benefits from the tourists that visit this area and from its location in a major retail area, alongside several other large stores including: a Carrefour hypermarket, a Decathlon shop, an Aldi supermarket and a McDonald’s restaurant.

The asset has been acquired by an institutional fund recently launched by Mitiska REIM, known as First Retail International Fund 2 (FRI 2), which has received support and advice from Catella Asset Management Iberia.

Mitiska REIM has also announced the appointment of Christophe Mouton as its Director in Spain and Portugal. Christophe will be responsible for acquisitions, developments and the management of partnerships with property developers and investors in retail parks across Spain and Portugal, with a special focus on the development of new retail parks. (…).

Mitiska REIM is a private company specialising in fund management and real estate investments, which is headquartered in Brussels (Belgium). Mitiska REIM invests exclusively in the peripheral retail park sector in Europe, in accordance with its strategy of (co)-development and adding value. (…).

Mitiska REIM recently announced the second satisfactory closure of its First Retail International 2 Fund (FRI2) for €190 million, which significantly exceeds its original aim of €150 million. (…).

Original story: Real Estate Press

Translation: Carmel Drake

Inbisa Sells 27,000 sqm Logistics Platform To Primafrío

29 September 2016 – Mis Naves

“The ability of Inbisa and the Asua Real Estate Group to offer our clients the best options in terms of location and facilities, adapting ourselves to the needs and requirements in each case, is the key factor that enable transactions of this kind to go ahead”, said sources at the company.

Inbisa, through the Asua Real Estate Group, has sold the “Inbisa San Román Logistics Platform”, located at km 385 on the N-1 highway, 25km from Vitoria and 95km from the border with France, to the international transport company Primafrío.

The logistics platform has a surface area measuring more than 27,000 sqm, as well as more than 5,200 sqm of constructed space, split between a warehouse (covering 4,000 sqm in terms of floor space) with 20 loading bays and 10m free height inside and offices ( measuring 375 sqm). Moreover, the site has another independent building (measuring 903 sqm), which is used for fleet services, as well as workshops for maintenance and a car wash for trucks.

According to sources at Inbisa, “Primafrío, which will open one of its largest operating headquarters in Spain at the “Inbisa San Román Logistics Platform”, has chosen these facilities thanks to their strategic location, along one of the country’s main logistics corridors, which links Madrid with France and the rest of Europe. Similarly, the characteristics of the logistics platform are perfectly suited to the requirements of the transport company, as it offers all of the infrastructure necessary for it to undertake its business and logistics activity”.

Original story: Mis Naves

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lar España Invests €53M In Shopping Centre In Sagunto

29 September 2016 – Mis Locales

Lar España Real Estate has presented its plans for “VidaNova Parc”, a new project in which it plans to invest €53 million and which will open its doors in 2018.

VidaNova Parc has been presented with a surface area of 120,000 sqm, of which 44,000 sqm corresponds to the gross leasable area and the rest to open spaces, roads, gardens and parking spaces. It is being created to bridge a gap in the current market and will become a unique shopping centre and family leisure complex in its immediate environment. Around 250,000 inhabitants live in its catchment area (…).

Lar España’s investment in the project is expected to amount to €53 million, in addition to another €40 million that the operators moving into the shopping centre will have to invest. The complex will open its doors in 2018.

The site has a leasable surface area of 44,000 sqm.

With the launch of the construction work at VidaNova Parc, the first operators in the main consumer sectors have already been confirmed, including Leroy Merlín, Decathlon, C&A, Worten, Norauto, Burger King and Fifty Factory (Cortefiel Group). They will be joined by more than thirty brands….in this new shopping centre and leisure park. In addition, the centre will have 2,300 parking spaces.

José Manuel Llovet, Head of the Retail Area at Lar España Real Estate, has highlighted the strong presence of the company in the country through its ten shopping and leisure centres and the two projects that it has under construction. “Our mission, which is a major business priority, is to consolidate our activity in Spain; we want to grow with it, generate wealth, promote employment, and whereby boost the sector and innovate in the field of shopping and leisure”.

Original story: Mis Locales

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sambil Plans To Open 6-8 Shopping Centres In Spain

29 September 2016 – Mis Locales

The Venezuelan Sambil Group plans to open a network of between six and eight shopping centres in Spain and does not rule out expanding its business to other markets in Europe.

Nevertheless, before embarking on its new projects, the company will focus on establishing what is, for now, its only centre in Spain: the Sambil Outlet in Leganés (Madrid), which will open its doors on 24 March 2017, after more than four years of construction work. It will become the largest outlet and leisure space in Spain with a gross leasable area of 43,000 sqm.

The new centre, which will open on a site on the ill-fated M-40 and in which Sambil has invested around €55 million, will create around 1,500 jobs and require additional investment of between €25 million and €30 million to equip the premises for each brand.

According to Cohen (Director General of the Sambil Group), the company has chosen Spain to make its first foray into Europe because it was “ideal” from both a cultural and language perspective, as well as because it has a lot to offer in the corporate field and is attractive again for overseas investors.

“It is a rapidly-growing, mature and legally secure market, which needs entrepreneurship”, said Cohen, who stated that the country “has all of the tools to continue outperforming other markets around the world”.

The Executive highlighted that a company such as his, which is family based and has its headquarters in Venezuela, does not travel “7,000 kilometres” to open one shopping centre, and he added that in Spain his company’s focus is very much placed on the most populous cities -Barcelona, Sevilla, Bilbao, Valencia, etc-.

Although the group is strongly committed to the “outlet” format, it does not rule out opening “traditional” shopping centres in some of the cities, although, in both cases, they would be accompanied by leisure and restaurant facilities.

In this sense, he highlighted that the Sambil Outlet will have the largest wind tunnel in Europe and the most modern cinema screens, which will be run by the Odeon chain, which is working to make cinema-going more “accessible”.

Moreover, it will house the largest Simply (Alcampo) supermarket in the Community of Madrid.

The company thinks that between 5 and 6 million people will pass through the doors of its centre in Leganés during its first year of activity. It has faith in the success of the “outlet” format combined with leisure, which is currently fashionable in countries such as the USA (…).

“Post-crisis, the Spanish consumer is much more rational than emotional” stated the Director of Sambil in Spain, Arnold Moreno, who confirmed that the centre will open with an occupancy rate of at least 80%.

Sambil Outlet will have stores from discount brands such as For&From (the Inditex group’s footwear label), Mango, Fifty Factory (Cortefiel), Décimas and Xti, as well as “low cost” fashion stores.

The Sambil Group has constructed more than 500 residential buildings and offices and owns a portfolio of eight hotels and thirteen shopping centres – ten located in Venezuela, one in the Dominican Republic and one in Curaçao.

Original story: Mis Locales

Translation: Carmel Drake

Villar Mir Negotiates Partial Sale Of Fifth Tower To Hispania

29 September 2016 – Expansión

According to the businessman Juan Miguel Villar Mir, the Villar Mir Group has begun negotiations with the Socimi Hispania to join forces for the development of the fifth tower, the new skyscraper in the north of Madrid, next to the Cuatro Torres Business Area complex.

It is one of the most important buildings in the capital in terms of investment, given that the developers will need around €500 million to cover the construction and rental costs – an initial lease has been granted for a period of 75 years.

Sources at the family holding company have confirmed that preliminary conversations have begun, aimed at Hispania’s entry into the project “as a minority shareholder”. Other sources state that the Socimi, managed by the Azora group and in which George Soros holds a stake, may be interested in acquiring 100% of the building, which will be leased in its entirety. Nevertheless, the Villar Mir Group assures that it will maintain the majority stake.

The fifth tower project, which Villar Mir won at the end of 2014 in a tender organised by the Town Hall of Madrid, has already selected its tenants. Earlier this year, the IE Business School agreed to lease 50,000 sqm of the building for its campus. The bottom part of the complex, measuring 12,000 sqm, will house leisure areas, a shopping arcade and a health centre, which will, in theory, be operated by the Quirón Group. The project, promoted by the Villar Mir family, still needs to obtain the definitive permits from the mayoress of Madrid, Manuela Carmena.

Partners

In September 2015, the Swiss investment fund Corestate announced that it had agreed to form a joint venture with the Villar Mir Group to jointly develop the fifth tower. Six months later, in March 2016, Juan Miguel Villar Mir qualified that announcement by stating that the agreement with Corestate had not been signed yet. With or without Corestate, the negotiations with Hispania are happening at a time of peak activity for Spain’s listed Socimis. Hispania reached the final round of the tender to acquire the building, after it partnered up with Ferrovial, but Villar Mir won the 75-year lease by offering to pay an annual fee of €4 million, equivalent to twice the bid price. (…).

Divestments

The search for partners forms part of the strategy being pursued by the Villar Mir’s holding company to finance its multi-million investment commitments through Espacio and OHL, without increasing its debt, which amounts to €14,000 million. The other source of extraordinary income comes from the sale of its assets. (…).

The group needs funds to tackle its three major real estate projects (the fifth tower, the Canalejas Complex and the War Office in London), as well as several toll roads in Latin America.

Original story: Expansión (by C. Morán and R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Leonardo Hotels Buys Its Third Establishment In Madrid

29 September 2016 – Hosteltur

Leonardo Hotels is continuing its expansion in the Spanish capital with the acquisition of its third hotel, the Gran Atlanta Madrid, which will be incorporated into its portfolio from 30 September. According to Hosteltur, Gran Atlanta will join two other properties that the largest group in Israel bought in July. The Gran Atlanta Hotel is a four-star property and has 180 rooms, as well as five meeting rooms, with capacity for up to 100 people, and a restaurant.

A determining factor in the acquisition of the hotel has been its prime location, right in the heart of the financial and business district of the city. It is close to the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and is well-connected by public transport, both in terms of local trains (Cercanías) and the Metro, which allow guests to travel quickly from Nuevos Ministerios to the centre or to the airport in just 15 minutes.

The Hotel Gran Atlanta Madrid will retain its current name until the renovation work has been completed. The refurbishment is due to take place between April and the autumn of 2017, when the property will adopt the Leonardo Hotels brand name. The international law firm Hogan Lovells has provided legal advice once again in an operation that has been advised by Planet Hotels & Resorts.

According to the Director General of Leonardo Hotels for Europe, Daniel Roger, “the decision to acquire another property in Madrid was not hard when we found the Hotel Gran Atlanta. Our success is based on our strategy of owning several hotels in Europe’s major cities and on the synergies that that approach generates. Naturally, the building’s potential and its excellent location have also been decisive factors.

The firm now has five hotels in the Spanish market, two in Barcelona (Leonardo Hotels made its debut in Barcelona with the Boutique Hotel Sagrada Familia) and three in Madrid. Roger added, “this represents a boost, in a short period of time, which makes our offer even more attractive and allows us to develop and strengthen our position in Spain ever further. We will continue our growth soon with more acquisitions here (in Spain) as well as in other countries in Europe”.

Leonardo Hotels is the European division of the Fattal Hotels Group, founded by David Fattal in Israel. It has operated in the European market since 2007 and owns more than 65 establishments in the superior 3-star and superior 4-star categories in more than 35 cities aross the continent, in countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the UK, Spain, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Italy and the Netherlands. In total, its properties have more than 10,000 rooms and 20,500 sqm of space for meetings and conferences.

Original story: Hosteltur

Translation: Carmel Drake

BNP Paribas: Hotel Inv’t Will Reach €1,300M In 2016

29 September 2016 – Diario Vasco

Real estate investment in the hotel segment is expected to reach €1,300 million by the end of 2016, according to a forecast prepared by BNP Paribas Real Estate, which was revealed yesterday at the presentation of the entity’s Hotel Report for Spain.

An economist from BNP Paribas, Ramiro Rodríguez, indicated that the forecast is based on actual figures for the first seven months of the year.

During the 7 months to July, direct investment in the hotel sector in Spain grew by 18%, to reach €996 million, compared with €840 million during the same period in 2015, according to Rodríguez, who added that this trend shows that “investors are still interested in the market”.

The report provides an overview of the Spanish hotel network, both in terms of occupancy rates, as well as investment and prices. It also gives details of the key players behind these investments – Socimis, funds, individuals…

Sources at BNP Paribas forecast that 64 new hotels will open between 2016 and 2017, primarily in the 4- and 3-star categories. Of those, 18 will be in Barcelona, 15 in the Balearic Islands, 9 in Madrid, 6 in Gerona, 6 in Málaga, 6 in Valencia and 4 in Sevilla.

In terms of prices, increases have been recorded primarily in the 3- and 4-star categories, of 4%, whilst prices for 5-star hotels have increased by 3%.

At the end of 2015, average prices amounted to €173 per room for 5-star hotels; €84 for 4-star hotels; €64 for 3-star hotels; €54 for 2-star hotels and €53 for 1-star hotels.

Original story: Diario Vasco

Translation: Carmel Drake