Record rent for the iconic Prada store in Galleria

24 December, La Repubblica

It was Prada that started a game which saw prices growing and growing. Prada triggered the bid that transformed Galleria into a money machine with its 59 thousand Sq m and 149 shop windows. In 2011, Prada beat Apple obtaining a 4,187 Sq m space from the ground to the top floor occupied at the time by McDonald’s. The brand made the record offer of 5.2 million euro per year for the first five years, which became 9 million with the agreement signed in 2013. Now that the contract is about to expire, Prada will pay to the City of Milan 2.2 million on top of the current yearly rent of 520 thousand euro in order to keep its location. With the new lease, the city administration will achieve incomes for 37.5 million in 2019. They were 26 million at the beginning of the Sala administration, 8.2 million in 2007.

This time, an auction wasn’t necessary to assign the spaces. As City Councillor for Budget Roberto Tasca explains, “the shop belongs to Milan’s cultural heritage”. After all, Prada was born in 1913 right here, from a small shop in Galleria that used sell suitcase, handbags and walking sticks in 1920. The products were so elegant, that Mario Prada ordered the mahogany and brass furniture from Pollard Padd in London, while the famous Scala theatre scenographer Nicola Benois created the two large panels.  These elements are still in the shop. As a result, the Ministry for Culture started a procedure to preserve the shop.

Following the same logic that forced the City of Milan of repeating the call of bids for the spaces of Gatto Rosso and Salotto, considering their historical value, the city administration decided to renew the lease for other 12 years. As Tasca remarks, the new contract “will be more convenient for the City administration, pursuing the road of preservation of the cultural heritage which has given excellent results so far, with the benefit of the city finances”. Moreover, the appeal of Galleria keeps growing thanks to the tourist and the international hype of Milan. Fashion brands are willing to pay high rents to secure a spot between marbles and frescoes. The latest offer comes from Moncler which will replace Urban Center. The brand had more than doubled the auction starting price for 1.2 million by bidding 2.5. Before that, Yves Saint Laurent offered raised the auction price from 131 thousand euro to one million for an 80 Sq m space with just one window. That’s the same money paid by Cracco for its multifloored restaurant. Tasca endorses this process: “the more we earn from Galleria, the fewer Milanese will have to pay. Galleria is open also at night. For me, the shopping centre option is not that bad as someone else say”.

Source: La Repubblica

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi

LVMH conquering Via Montenapoleone in Milan

06 October, Milano Finanza

Lvmh is conquering Via Montenapoleone. According to Milano Finanza, the French luxury multinational led by Bernard Arnault has allegedly closed a deal for the lease of a store in Via Montenapoleone currently occupied by Giorgio Armani. The lease estimated price is between 15 and 20 million euro. After ten years from the opening, the Giorgio Armani store has arrived at the end of the lease contract, and it will move shortly to Via Sant’Andrea 9. The new location has accommodated for a long time the Maison as well as its brand Armani/Casa. Giorgio Armani declared to Milano Finanza: “I’m leaving the boutique in Via Montenapoleone because if prefer returning to the store I own in Via Sant’Andrea, where I opened my first boutique, one of the most elegant in Quadrilatero”.

According to the rumours, the French brand is looking to expand the Louis Vuitton store and to introduce also its homeware line Objets nomads, which is rapidly growing, while a new single-brand Celine store is to be excluded. The brand managed by the designer Hedi Slimane, in fact, is about to open a temporary store in Via Santo Spirito, as the one in Via Montenapoleone will close due to renovation works. The store will be re-designed according to the new concept. The Lvmh group didn’t make any comment on the news.

Source: Milano Finanza

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi

Qatar’s investors bet on Quadrilatero in Milan

26 October, Libero

Big international investors are watching with interest at the developments of Milan’s property market, still considered very interesting from an economic point of view. Arab investors have been the most active in the past few years, acquiring full developments or single buildings, without forgetting the very profitable segment of luxury hotels.

A large part of the activities come from Qatar. Its sovereign fund acquired in 2015 the Porta Nuova project, while the royal family Al-Thani bought to renovate the five-star hotel Excelsior Gallia in Piazza Duca d’Aosta in 2011. Qatar investors are now looking at investing in the old town, with a focus on Quadrilatero. They have been studying which streets offer the highest profits, especially profits from the rental of commercial space, showrooms, offices and boutiques to the major international fashion brands. The survey identified the area comprised between Via Montenapoleone, Via Verri and Via Sant’Andrea, this latter being the most expensive but still offering high margins nonetheless. And, most importantly, with no risk of unlet spaces.

Milan wealthy families, who have owned the properties in this area for generations, received considerable offers. These properties, in fact, are owned mainly by privates.

The purchasing prices start from 70 thousand euro, and they may reach even 100 million euro for the most prestigious buildings. An excellent price, concerning that rents in the area are 8-10 thousand euro/Sq m.

Source: Libero

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi

Milan: Traversi 15 years after, from garage to luxury district

09 January, Corriere della Sera

New life for the former garage Traversi. 15 years since its closure, seven since the tender for the reconversion of the building in Via Bagutta, Milan, the project got the approval from the Superintendency of Fine Arts, Landscape and Archaeological Heritage. The massive restyling – the building is 24.70 metres high, with a total surface of five thousand Sq m – will cost over 30 million euro and it will take three years to be completed. The first multi-storey garage of Milan, built in the 30es in typical rationalist style, it will be turned into luxury stores. In fact, the building will accommodate fashion brands, a showroom, a restaurant and, perhaps, even a spa with a terrace with a view over Milan. The location, after all, has always interested big brands. When it closed down, it was rumoured an interest from Armani, then from Ralph Laurent, and finally from the sheikh of Kuwait Majed Al Sabah, the founder of the Villa Moda stores, the temples of luxury shopping in the Middle East. Those were the times when it was rumoured also the hypothesis of the arrival of Harrod’s in San Babila square.

The history of Traversi is rooted in the reconstruction of the city centre between the two wars. The thirties saw the start of the works to empty and clean up the internal structure, which is based on the demolition of the urban surroundings. As a result, while the whole area between Corso Matteotti and Piazza San Babilia was completely reconstructed, a small plot of land was left, but it was too small and uneven to build houses, and with just one free side, that facing on Via Bagutta. For this reason, it was decided to use it to make a building where to park cars, that at the time were becoming popular. The project was assigned to the architect Giuseppe De Min, who also designed the building at the corner between Piazza San Babila and Corso Vittorio Emanuele.

Traversi was inaugurated in 1938. The uneven land didn’t stop De Min from implementing a remarkable example of architecture, with fan-shaped foundations and the distinction between the two lower floors and the upper ones, characterised by curved lines and glass surfaces. Throughout the years, the garage had been modified. But when someone suggested to tear it down, the regulation protecting historical monuments saved the garage in 2007. The renovation works will include also the implementation of an elevated passageway.

The garage had been the parking of the cars of Milan’s celebrities. But it has been left vacant for too long, except for a temporary shop that caused the resident to protest due to noise. With a turbulent past, the building has changed ownership several times. The real estate agency Aedes, after having emptied it three years ago, sold it Zunino and to the company Risanamento for 89 million euro through a complex financial operation. In 2010 a tender was launched to gather new ideas for the “new Traversi” but, in the meanwhile, it was bought by Banco Popolare due to one of the many defaulted contracts that saw Banca Italease involved. Then, two years ago, the property was acquired by Bnp Paribas Reim on behalf of the British private equity fund Hayrish. Obtained the permit to build from the City of Milan, there will be also a swimming pool in Via Fatebenesorelle in exchange for the planning fees.

Source: Corriere della Sera

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi

 

Cbre finalizes a new lease in Eur in Rome

21 December, Cbre

A surface of 750 Sq m has been leased to the prestigious brand Colmar

Cbre, leading real estate consulting company, has successfully finalised, on behalf of the fund Gamma, the lease of 750 Sq m to Colmar – the popular sports clothing brand – that will open its new showroom at the ground floor of the building located between Viale della Civiltà Romana and Via della Letteratura, owned by the Fund and managed by DeA Capital Real Estate Sgr in the Eur neighbourhood in Rome.

The space was previously occupied by Unipol and it was completely remodelled, turning the spaces formerly subdivided in office into one big open space that will accommodate the showroom of the prestigious Italian brand.

About 4,000 Sq m are still vacant. There are, however, negotiations going one that might lead to the rental of the whole building in the next months.

Massimiliano Eusepi, Head of CBRE Rome – CBRE Italia, comments: “We’ve promptly closed this negotiation and Cbre, together with the owners, was able to deliver the space, completely remodelled, within 20 days from the signing of the contract, as Colmar wished”.

Source: Cbre

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi