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Milan: Primark defies the curse of the building between Via Torino and Via Palla

05 November, Corriere della Sera

Two years ago, Trony closed down and was liquidated. The same happened for Fnac, Billa and Standa. The Irish Primark will be the next to occupy the “cursed building” in Via Torino 45 at the corner with Via Palla, as much prestigious as unlucky. It will be the first store of the brand to open in the centre of an Italian city.

The whole building has seven floors and a gross surface of 10 thousand Sq m. The lease contract will have a duration of twenty years for a yearly rent of 2.5 million euro, namely below the market prices. Shops closed down one after the other, despite the great potential of such a central location. For instance, the Calliope and Terranova stores just beside are doing very well. They occupy the building between Via Torino, Via Palla and Via Lupetta, where there was once just a small parking lot and a crumbling house bombed during the war.

In 2016, when Trony was liquidated, the owners put the property for sale. The offers that came weren’t that bad, namely little more than 90 million, from Hines, Invesco and Blackstone. In the end, the owners, the Mosconi family, decided to rent. Perhaps, they’re attached to the property. The first Standa department store opened here in 1931, founded by Franco Monzino with 50 thousand lire at the time. Standa occupied the building for 69 years. Fnac then replaced it in 2000, the giant of books and music owned by Pinault Printemps Redoute. It was liquidated in 2012. The public prosecutor’s office has just postponed the sentencing for ten people charged with fraudulent bankruptcy. It was then the turn of Trony, while a gym occupied the top floor and the right side of the building became a Billa supermarket of the German group Rewe.

Trony fell through along with the gym just after Billa. Strangely enough, Rewe sold all its stores in Italy to Carrefour except for the one in Via Torino for which it couldn’t find a buyer. The property remained empty for two years. At one point, it seemed like H&M, whose store is just a few metres away, wanted to open a separate location there. After a lengthy negotiation with the unions, the Swedish store gave up.

A similar case concerned Piazza Cordusio, always in Milan city centre. Close to Via Dante, Hines Italia will inaugurate in April the first store of the Japanese brand Uniqlo. Fosun gave up the idea of opening a hotel in Palazzo Broggi. On the other hand, a hotel might open soon in the Generali building, while a Coin Excelsior store might open on the side of Via Mercanti. Not far from there, in Via Santa Margherita, the Qatar sovereign fund is negotiating to sell the Credit Suisse offices to some Korean funds. Finally, there is also a porch in the small square of San Fedele which is the object of contention.

Two years ago, Coima bought for 84 million the BNL building. The offices used to accommodate Bnp Paribas, the company of the same group didn’t move to another building it owned, it settled instead in the Diamante building of Coima itself through a sort of “exchange” with the asset manager of Manfredi Catella, paying a costly rent of 470 euro/Sq m. Now, Catella wants to open artisanal shops and restaurants on the ground floor in San Fedele square asking the city administration to privatise the porch, 700 Sq m, for commercial purposes. But the city administration didn’t agree with the amount offered by Coima for the purchase, namely one million.

Source: Corriere della Sera

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi