Tag: architects

Kronos Homes Hires Architect Ricardo Bofill to Design its Ikon Tower in Valencia

3 October 2019 – Kronos Homes has hired the architect Ricardo Bofill to design the plans for what will be the highest residential tower in Valencia. The firm has named the future 100-meter building Ikon.

The Ikon apartment building will have two towers with 30 and 40 floors, located at the beginning of Avenida Cortes Valencianas. The project, which will cost 70 million euros, will consist of a total of 203 one-to-four-bedroom flats, along with a Mediterranean garden, swimming pool, solarium, gym, social club and a retail area.

Original Story: Cinco Dias – A. S.

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

Banco Sabadell Puts Edificio Planeta Up for Sale for €200m

11 June 2018 – Eje Prime

Banco Sabadell does not want Edificio Planeta on its balance sheet. The Spanish bank has placed the asset located in the centre of Barcelona up for sale for a minimum asking price of €200 million. The entity wants to divest the property before the summer.

At a time of immense interest in the office market from international funds, and given the area in which the property is located, a financial centre with very little available stock, Sabadell is not expected to have much trouble finding investors interested in its asset.

The building, located at 662-664 Avenida Diagonal, has an overground surface area of 26,500 m2 spread over nine floors. Moreover, the tenants have access to 350 parking spaces, according to El Confidencial.

Sabadell took over the ownership of the building in May after the Lara family, owner of the editorial group of the same name, handed it over to the financial institution through its family office, Inversiones Hemisferio, which liquidated a loan from the bank through this operation with which it purchased shares in the bank.

Constructed in 1979, at a cost of €100 million for Banco Industrial de Catalunya, the modernist building, designed by the architects Tous and Fargas, used to be owned by Planeta until 2001.

Prior to its transfer to Sabadell, on 31 May, the property lost the multinational publicity company McCann as its tenant; that firm moved to a renovated building in the most sought-after business centre of the Catalan capital, the 22@ district, as revealed by Eje Prime.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Merlin Leases 8 Floors in Torre Glòries to Competence Call Center

26 April 2018 – Eje Prime

Merlin has found a new tenant for one of the most iconic assets in its portfolio after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) decided to vacate the property. The Socimi, led by Ismael Clemente, has signed the lease for 9,000 m2 of space spread over eight floors to Competence Call Center. Merlin has been advised by Savills Aguirre Newman and CBRE.

Standing 142 m tall and comprising a gross leasable area of 37,614 m2, the building in Barcelona has received investment of €15 million from Merlin. After the decision by the EMA, the Socimi decided to convert the property into a multi-tenant space dedicated to the office sector.

The building was designed by the architects Jean Nouvel and Fermín Vázquez and was inaugurated in 2005. It contains 34 storeys and an auditorium with a capacity of more than 350 people. In addition, the property has four floors of parking with 300 spaces. In total, the property spans 51,485 m2.

The real estate group acquired the building in January 2017 for €142 million. Through that operation, the Socimi avoided the tourism moratorium imposed by the mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau, which had prevented Emin Capital from opening a luxury hotel in the famous tower.

Emin Capital reached an agreement with Agbar at the end of 2013 to acquire the building for €150 million. That commitment materialised at the beginning of 2016 when the group made its first payment of €35 million.

The 22@ district is the main area of growth for the office market in Barcelona, having consolidated its position as a magnet for international innovation companies such as Cisco, Ebay, Yahoo, Deutsche Telekom, Sage, SAP, Capgemini and Indra, amongst others.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Torre Caleido: Construction Begins of Madrid’s Fifth Tower

1 February 2018 – Expansión

After five months of preparations underground, the construction phase of the 35-storey skyscraper has finally begun. The 180 m tall tower is going to house the IE campus, as well as a horizontal building that will be home to sports facilities, a shopping centre and parking areas.

The starting gun has been fired for the above-ground work on what will become the fifth tower in Madrid. The future skyscraper, measuring 180 m2 tall and comprising 35 storeys, is going to house the new vertical IE campus, which will emerge from a second building, with a base that is going to be 280 m long and 60 m wide, which will form an inverted T-shaped complex, known as Project Caleido.

Inmobiliaria Espacio, the subsidiary of Grupo Villar Mir and Megaworld Corporation, the business conglomerate owned by the Philippine multimillionaire Andrew Tan, are the owners of the company responsible for the construction and operation of the project, with a planned investment of €300 million and which will result in the generation of more than 5,000 jobs during the construction and operation phases (…).

Caleido –designed by the architecture studios Fenwick & Iribarren and Serrano Suñer Arquitectos– will be located in the epicentre of the new financial district in Madrid and will serve to eliminate a blot on the landscape in the north of the capital by connecting Paseo de la Castellana and Avenida de Monforte de Lemos, as well as to revitalise the existing business complex, explains Fernando Serrano-Suñer, one of the architects behind the project (…).

“To date, we have completed the first two phases, involving the demolition work and the construction of the foundations, which are now complete. This week, we will award the construction work, which has been tendered for through a very transparent process, audited by Dypsa”, says José Antonio Fernández Gallar, Director General of Inmobiliaria Espacio.

Third phase

Now, the third phase of construction is going to be launched, involving the building of the tower and the base (…), where the campus sports facilities, a 600-seater auditorium, an indoor swimming pool, libraries, a dining room, a complete shopping floor and a hospital centre specialising in sports medicine run by Quirón will all live alongside 7,000 m2 of green space (…).

Leisure will also play an important role in the complex, with sports areas and events spaces. “We are studying the possibility of including a cinema of some kind, but it would not conform with the traditional style, it would include an e-gaming and e-sport element, something that doesn’t exist in Spain at the moment”.

Moreover, the base will include parking for students and professors, as well as parking for the retail space and another public parking lot, with a total surface area of 42,100 m2 spread over several floors and with capacity for 1,900 parking spaces (…).

In terms of the skyscraper, the 180 m tall building will house 70 classrooms, work and rest areas, as well as double-height spaces to replicate meeting places in traditional campuses (…).

“The project is progressing at a good pace. We have completed the first phase and we are moving forward with the idea that the work will be finished by 2020”, he said.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo and R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Centro Canalejas’ Luxury Apartments Will Be Sold For c. €13,000/m2

4 November 2017 – Expansión

Centro Canalejas, located just a stone’s throw from Puerta del Sol, in the heart of Madrid, will open its doors at the beginning of 2019. It will house the first hotel to be operated by the Canadian luxury chain Four Seasons in Spain, as well as high-end homes, which will be sold for an average price of €13,000/m2. Moreover, it will include a shopping arcade on the lower floors and a 400-space parking lot.

The complex, promoted by OHL Desarrollos, Grupo Villar Mir and Mohari Limited – a company controlled by the Israeli businessman Mark Scheinberg– will unify seven historical buildings, some of which were constructed at the beginning of the nineteenth century, into a single unit, involving an investment of €525 million.

A luxury hotel operated by Four Seasons will occupy the majority of the space in the centre. Specifically, the hotel will have 200 rooms, whose surface areas will range from 45 m2 to 400 m2. They will occupy the entirety of the second, third, fourth and fifth floors, although the hotel will have a presence throughout the whole building. It will have 4,200 m2 of common areas as well as a spa, banquet halls and meeting rooms, one of which will have capacity for 600 people. Moreover, it will have two restaurants, one on the first floor, measuring 400 m2, and another on the seventh floor, measuring 425 m2.

Exclusive homes

The complex will also contain 22 exclusive homes with surface areas of between 150 m2 and 700 m2 for one of the penthouses, which will include a 350 m2 terrace. The homes, which will be located on the upper floors of the building, will be sold for an average price of €13,000 /m2.

“We have not started to market them yet. We obtained the definitive licence in July and we expect to start work in November, but several interested parties have already approached us”, explained Francisco J. Meliá, CEO of Centro Canalejas Madrid and Director General at OHL Desarrollos, the company responsible for developing the project.

Flagship development

Moreover, the centre will have a shopping arcade, measuring 15,000 m2, spread over three floors. The retail space will house luxury fashion and accessories brands, as well as gastronomic offerings.

The property developers and those responsible for the development have highlighted the architectural challenges involved in adapting the buildings to their new uses whilst respecting their heritage value and they underlined that more than €7 million has been invested in the conservation of 16,700 pieces.

“Centro Canalejas is going to be a flagship development in Madrid and not only because of its ocean liner shape”, explained the architect Carlos Lamela, Director of Estudio Lamela and author of this architectural project.

Original story: Expansión (by Artur Zanón and Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Castilla-La Mancha Welcomes Production Activities On Rural Land

20 October 2017 – Inmodiario

The Director-General of Housing and Town Planning for Castilla-La Mancha, José Antonio Carillo, has participated in the opening ceremony of the VII Annual Meeting of the Partners of the Spanish Association of Town Planning Technicians (‘Asociación Española de Técnicos Urbanistas’ or AETU), held in the Assembly Room at the College of Architects in Toledo.

Experts from all over the country participated in the meeting about matters relating to territorial and urban planning, debating current affairs issues with experts such as José María Baño León, Professor of Administrative Law at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and José María Ezquiaga Domínguez, dean of the College of Architects of Madrid and author of several general municipality plans, including for Puertollano, Cuenca and Guadalajara.

Carrillo took advantage of the occasion to make reference to regulatory innovations promoted by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha in the regional sphere, which regulate the subject and which have been specified in the Order dated 1 February 2016 and in the laws 3/2016, dated 5 May and 3/2017, dated 1 September, which amended the LOTAU.

The purpose of this modification, amongst others, is to facilitate the installation of production activities on rural land in small towns in Castilla-La Mancha, as well as to undertake urban regeneration operations in certain neighbourhoods of the region’s cities and towns, in collaboration with other housing policies and instruments, such as the Urban Regeneration and Renewal Areas (ARRUs), launched during this legislature in Sigüenza, Molina de Aragón and Toledo; and to which other initiatives and projects have now been added, such as those in Illescas, Tembleque and Tarancón, amongst others.

The Director-General has said that “García-Page’s Government is very clear about the priorities in terms of Urban Planning, and they include streamlining the procedures that correspond to the municipalities of the whole Autonomous Region, as well as making more flexible and facilitating even further the work that the region’s small towns are performing in this regard”, in such a way that, he continued, “town planning represents an engine for growth for them and not a burden of paperwork that may hinder the business initiatives that arise in their territory” (…).

Original story: Inmodiario

Translation: Carmel Drake

Chilean Group Osim Debuts In Spain With €480M Inv’t On Costa Del Sol

29 September 2017 – Diario Sur

The Chilean investment management company Osim has initiated the development of a series of projects along the Costa del Sol where it plans to invest around €480 million in total. The company is going to make its debut in Casares, where today (Friday) it will present a real estate project comprising more than 400 homes and involving an investment of €200 million, which will materialise over the next four years.

The site in question is the Alcazaba Lagoon urbanisation, where 92 homes have already been built and where another 340 units are expected to be constructed. This urbanisation, which will be officially unveiled tonight, includes a giant artificial lake, which occupies a surface area of 1.4 hectares and has an average depth of 2.5 metres. It is the first development of this kind to be undertaken in Europe.

The project comes in response to an initiative by the company, formed by the Chilean entrepreneurs Óscar Lería and Patricio Rojas, who through the management company Osim are planning to channel the arrival of capital from Chile into several real estate projects to be developed over the next few years in Marbella, Estepona, Torremolinas and Málaga capital, according to comments made by Lería to Diario Sur.

The businessman explained that Alcazaba Lagoon represents the rescue of a project started in 2006 in Casares. Construction was suspended during the years of the crisis and has now has been brought back to life with the construction of the artificial lake and the redesign of the whole site, which will now comprise a block development with 78 units (…). The Town Hall of Casares has already granted the property developer the building permit for the first block.

According to Lería, the artificial lake forms the centrepiece of the complete rethink of the original project and has been the pet project of the architect Hugo Torrico. The development of housing blocks, which has also involved the modernisation of the original plans, has been carried out by three Chilean architects: Cristian Larrain, Jaime Hernández and Diego Aigeren.

Lería explains that the water feature, as well as forming the central part of the project, represents an absolute innovation in Europe, offering several advantages and not only functionally speaking, given that it contains an artificial beach 6km from the coast, where people can practice water sports. Moreover, he explains, the maintenance of the lake requires a water cost of less than 50% of that of a garden, twenty times less than that of a golf course and 100 times less than that of swimming pools with the same volume of water.

The homes have asking prices ranging between €250,000 and €500,000 and are aimed primarily at the foreign market, with British buyers in the lead.

According to data provided by the company, the residential complex will result in the creation of around 3,000 direct and indirect jobs during the construction and sales process and for the maintenance of the facilities.

Original story: Diario Sur (by Héctor Barbotta)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Seven: Sotogrande Unveils Its Latest Ultra-Luxury Villas

11 April 2017 – Cinco Días

Unless you have €5,000 a month to spent on the service charge, then these exclusive villas are not for you. In fact, they are a concept that has rarely been seen anywhere in the world: a residential development comprising seven homes, each of which is going to be designed by an internationally-renowned architect, in a natural setting designed by a famous landscaper. The development is called The Seven. And it is the latest ultra-luxury initiative in Sotogrande, San Roque (Cádiz).

Sotogrande is undergoing a complete transformation. Established in 1962 by the millionaire Joseph Rafael McMicking, a businessman of Filipino origin, it quickly became one of the poles of attraction for domestic and overseas millionaires alike. Following the purchase from NH Hoteles in 2014 by the funds Cerberus and Orion, for €225 million, the management company has spent a while reflecting on what this urban complex in the Mediterranean should look like in the future. And the answer came from the past. “When you look at the history of Sotogrande, everything revolves around exclusivity and quality”, explains Marc Topiol, CEO of the company. (…).

The villas will crown a small outcrop in one of the highest areas of Sotogrande, with views over the sea, in the closed reservation of La Reserva, spanning 467 hectares. Construction of these dream homes, in the middle of this natural setting, will begin this year, with the aim of selling the properties by 2020.

The company has chosen seven internationally renowned architects to integrate their designs into The Seven (…).

A home in The Seven will cost between €14 million and €18 million. Each property will have a surface area of between 1,800 m2 and 2,400 m2, with the main bedroom measuring more than 120 m2. All of the homes will be equipped with everything a millionaire could wish for: a private spa, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a cinema and gym. “We will take care of everything. From paying bills to maintaining the garden and the home, opening up the home when the owner so requests, daily room service, chef, shopping, cleaning, restaurant reservations, transport, it will be live living in a hotel”, says Topiol. All for €5,000 per month (excluding extras).

In addition, residents will enjoy use of the shared facilities that Sotogrande has designed for La Reserva: a spa resort, one of the largest navigable lakes in Europe, tennis courts, golf, an artificial beach, a beach club….in an investment made by the company amounting to €40 million. Not to mention the well-known facilities at the urban complex, such as the Santa María Polo Club, horse riding facilities, the port and the famous golf courses, such as Valderrama and Real Club de Sotogrande. (…).

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Villar Mir Sells 49% Of Fifth Tower To Andrew Tan

27 March 2017 – Inmodiario

Making money to reduce OHL’s mounting debt is still imperative for Grupo Villar Mir. And it was in this context that the latest operation was signed between the holding company controlled by the 80-year old civil engineer and the real estate company Megaworld, owned by the Philippine businessman Andrew Tan. The businessman has become the new partner in the project to develop Caleido, the fifth tower in the Castellana complex. In 2015, the construction group sold Torre Espacio to Tan for €550 million.

The agreement will turn the Philippine businessman into one of Villar Mir’s partners, as owner of 49% of the company that is running the project, which includes the construction of a skyscraper measuring more than 180 m tall and an underground shopping area with a surface area of around 12,000 m2. Tan will spend around €150 million on the purchase. PwC has acted as legal advisors to Espacio during the operation and the law firm Pérez-Lorca has represented Megaworld.

In January, the Chairman of the Villar Mir group, Juan Miguel Villar Mir Fuentes, unveiled so-called project Caleido, together with the Mayor of Madrid, Manuela Carmena. This complex, in which around €300 million is expected to be invested, includes a high-rise building, which will house a university campus to be operated by Instituto de Empresa and a medical research centre to be managed by Grupo Quirón.

In addition, the plans include an underground shopping area, covering around 12,000 m2, a park measuring 33,000 m2 where concerts and other cultural activities will be held, and 2,000 parking spaces.

Villar Mir was awarded this plot of land in 2014 under a 75-year concession, after he agreed to pay the Town Hall of Madrid an annual fee of €4 million (after an initial four-year grace period). Initially, a conference centre was going to be constructed on the site. (…).

The future architectural complex, designed by the architectural studio Fenwick & Iribarren, in conjunction with the Serrano Suñer Arquitectos studio, will comprise two separate spaces: a 160 m tall building with 36 floors, and a four-storey base building measuring 20 m tall (…).

Original story: Inmodiario

Translation: Carmel Drake

Half Of Cruzcampo’s Former Site In Sevilla Goes Up For Sale

13 June 2016 – Andalucía Información

Investors and governments alike are trying to take advantage of the improvement in the economic environment to reactivate the real estate market in Sevilla. Whilst on Thursday, the Town Planning department put 19 plots of land in Sevilla, on which 1,440 homes may be built, up for forced sale through public auction, now comes the mandate for the confidential sale of half of the urban development rights over the large site of the former Cruzcampo factory, where the PGOU has authorised the construction of 1,963 homes, in addition to tertiary uses.

The site of the historical brewery on Avenida de Andalucía had gone from being a star project to a failing project. The Basque real estate company Urvasco, which acquired the plot during the golden years of the real estate boom, commissioned the design of a “high standing” neighbourhood to four of the star-architects at the time: Norman Foster, Jean Nouvel, Arata Isozaki and Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra, who…even had their photo taken together with Monteserín, the then mayor, on the balcony of the Town Hall, in 2006. At the time, sourcecs spoke about an investment of €750 million in the construction of a luxury neighbourhood that was going to boast a high category hotel with around 150 rooms.

Nevertheless, with the burst of the (real estate) bubble just two years later, the project ended up foundering, along with its developer, Urvasco, which was unable to meet its obligations with the banks that had lent it €330 million and so it had to hand over the land to a pool of financial entities and companies linked to them (around a dozen in total).

The ‘Compañía para los Desarrollos Inmobiliarios de la Ciudad de Híspalis’ is the owner of half of the urban development rights of this land (49.91% to be exact). The Company was constituted by Banco Popular, CajaSur, Caja Granada, Caja España, Caixa Catalunya, Cajastur, Caja Laboral, Bancaja and Caja de Ahorros de Extremadura.

This company, which had accumulated debt amounting to €294 million and losses of €200 million, filed for voluntary bankruptcy in January 2016 in the Commercial Court of Madrid, and its application was approved on 22 February. However, that has not represented an obstacle to the process to sell its urban development rights, entrusted to an intermediary company, which is looking for potential investors in a restricted process that will run until Friday (17 June), the deadline for the acceptance of offers.

The sales brochure highlights that the plot has a surface area of 18,286 sqm and is located just 400m from El Corte Inglés on Nervión Plaza (presented as the main shopping centre in Sevilla), as well as from Sevilla F.C.’s stadium and the Santa Justa train station.

The Interior Reform Plan definitively approved the development of 1,963 homes, of which 890 will be allocated for social housing, as part of a total constructible area for residential use of 225,823 sqm, as well as a further 29,345 sqm for tertiary use. Therefore, the gross buildable area amounts to 255,168 sqm.

All of this will be constructed on wide blocks located in the Southern area of the plot. The Northern section will be a green area covering more than 70,000 sqm. According to the sales brochure, “the proposed plans seeks to achieve a maximum liberation of space, of around 35% in total, for the enjoyment of citizens. To achieve this, the plans propose the construction of tall buildings, which in the case of the residential units will be 15-storeys high”.

Original story: Andalucía Información (by M. J. Florencino)

Translation: Carmel Drake