Benidorm’s Hoteliers Consider not Opening until 2021

The current situation has led hoteliers in Benidorm to consider the option of not opening their establishments until 2021 since their income will not cover their expenses.

The current situation has led hoteliers in Benidorm to consider the option of not opening their establishments until 2021, or to open only a small part of them, so as not to incur greater losses due to the lack of footfall, to be able to cover the bare minimum of their operating costs.

This has been highlighted by Exceltur, which has affirmed that this destination, like the Balearic Islands, depends a lot on foreign tourism. The restriction of intra-European traffic for the next few months, the late relaxation of measures in the tourism sector and the implementation of health security measures on beaches will be very dissuasive for tourists. The consequences could be lethal and will affect tourism activity more than any other sector of the Spanish economy.

Benidorm Grants Approval for Intempo Development

19 July 2019 – Richard D. K. Turner

The Benidorm City Council has approved the modified project for the Intempo high-rise. Its new owner, the Strategic Value Partners (SVP Global) fund, can now finish the development and put the flats up for sale.

While the building’s structure is complete, the common areas and individual flats still require work, especially has construction on the project halted in 2013. The developer forecasts that work on the development will wrap up in 18 months. The building will have 256 luxury flats, with prices running from 250,000 euros up to one million.

Original Story: Alicante Plaza – Alba Mercader

Photo: Rafa Molina

Azora Buys Hotel Pez Espada & Hotel Riviera in Málaga from Med Playa

9 May 2019 – Diario Sur

The Azora group has purchased the iconic Hotel Pez Espada in Torremolinos and Hotel Riviera in Benalmádena from Med Playa, as part of a larger operation involving seven establishments located in Benidorm and along the Costa del Sol.

In total, the investment group has added 1,670 rooms to its portfolio as a result of the transaction and it expects to invest €30 million in the repositioning of the seven hotels. The chain Med Playa will continue to manage all of the properties for a period of up to 35 years.

Hotel Pez Espada has 235 rooms, a 4-star rating and was refurbished by Playa Med as recently as 2017. It was inaugurated in May 1959 and was one of the first establishments to be built on the Costa del Sol at the start of the tourist boom. Its clientele included Ava Gardner, Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot, amongst others.

Meanwhile, Hotel Riviera, which is also a 4-star property, is located next to Puerto Marina, serves adults only and has a sauna, spa, restaurants, gym and solarium.

From this operation, it is clear that Azora is committed to investing in tourist destinations with assured success, such as the Costa del Sol and Benidorm. It is currently creating a new fund to invest in holiday hotels along the Mediterranean and in hostels in the main European tourist cities.

Original story: Diario Sur (by Pilar Martínez)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Baraka Invests €60M in the Construction of 2 Skyscrapers in Torrevieja

21 January 2019 – Idealista

Trinitario Casanova is on a roll with Baraka. Baraka Properties, the group’s arm specialising property development, has invested €60 million in the construction of two skyscrapers in Torrevieja, which will house more than 130 homes and 250 tourist apartments, according to explanations provided by the company to Idealista News.

The project is going to materialise into two 26-storey towers. Whilst the first will be dedicated to housing in its entirety, the second will be dedicated to hotel use. “Right now, the approval of the project is in the evaluation phase, although our plans are to finalise this first phase during the first quarter of the year”, explain sources at the group, “and once the project has been approved, we will request the licence”.

The land on which the two towers are going to be built is located on Avenida Doctor Gregorio Marañon, on the seafront next to the Doña Sinforosa park. “It is 200 metre from the marina, and all of the homes from the first floor up will have views of the sea. The homes from the fifth floor up will have 360º views”, say sources at Baraka Properties.

According to the company, these will be the first towers in the city, and the tallest to date. The other enclave with towers of this calibre is Benidorm. “The trend for tourists in the area is to look for more unique properties, with higher quality finishes, where they can be offered services like in an American condominium, and this plot fulfils all of those characteristics, both due to its location, and its scale/volume”, they conclude.

In total, 32,000 m2 of space is going to be built in the two towers, and by way of reference, the price per m2 of the penthouse will amount to around €7,000/m2, making it one of the most expensive developments in the area (…).

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja & P. Martínez-Almeida)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Xeresa Golf Completes a €4.7M Capital Increase

12 December 2018 – Alicante Plaza

The company that owns the Villaitana hotel complex in Benidorm, Xeresa Golf, has completed the capital increase that it launched in August, after emerging from creditor bankruptcy by fulfilling the agreement and acquiring the plot on which the resort was constructed, which was initially occupied on a concession basis. Thus, as reflected in the Official Bulletin of the Mercantile Registry (Borme) of Alicante on Tuesday, the company has subscribed a €4.7 million capital increase (the total amount), and so the resulting subscribed share capital amounts to €9.2 million, more than twice the figure before the operation.

It is not the first capital increase that Xeresa Golf has undertaken in its checkered history. In recent years, the firm founded at the time by the entrepreneurial Cremades family from Gandía, has resorted to “accordion operations” to wipe its debt, and to add or expel shareholders (the firm was created with several representatives of the jet set amongst its minority shareholders), and, on the penultimate occasion, to articulate the entry of its current majority shareholder, the hotel management company HI Partners, which owns 80% of its share capital.

Nevertheless, this new increase has basically been covered by its current shareholders (the hotel company owned 80% and the Cremades held onto 20%), according to sources. In fact, the shareholders of Xeresa Golf had preferential subscription rights, which, according to the same sources, they exercised. HI Partners acquired the majority of the company in 2017 (…) by offsetting the loan that the firm owned by the Cremades family held with Banco Sabadell, which was the owner of the hotel management platform at the time (and which was created specifically to manage the hotel assets that the entity had had to assume).

Just a year ago, the bank sold its hotel division to the US fund Blackstone, which is the ultimate owner of the 17 hotels that comprise the portfolio of HI Partners, including the asset in Benidorm (…).

Owner of the plot

This new capital increase comes shortly after Xeresa Golf has become the owner of the plot on which Hotel Villaitana stands (two four- and five-star hotels and several golf courses) in the PEDUI of Terra Mítica. Xeresa Golf submitted the best offer in the auction for the plots convened by the Consell, although in reality only two bids were made and the other one came from HI Partners. In fact, the capital increase was carried out for a similar amount to the price offered by the hotel owner to acquire the land on which it stands: €4.8 million plus taxes.

Similarly, the company that owns the hotel complex managed by the chain Meliá has overcome another milestone in the last year, that of definitively emerging from the creditor bankruptcy that it entered in 2012 (…).

Original story: Alicante Plaza (by David Martínez)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Uniq to Renovate 256 Luxury Homes in Benidorm’s In Tempo Skyscraper

12 December 2018 – Eje Prime

Uniq is going to renovate the tallest tower in Benidorm. The Catalan property developer has reached an agreement with the US fund SVP Global, the owner of the Intempo skyscraper, to develop the 256 luxury homes that are going to comprise the tallest residential property in the city, and one of the tallest in Spain, at 192 m high.

The real estate company is going to carry out the renovation of the building, which is located on Playa de Poniente, and which passed into the hands of SVP Global in November 2017 from Sareb. The fund already started to market the homes in the summer.

This latest project in Benidorm follows the recent alliance between Uniq and Goldman Sachs for the purchase of a plot of land on Paseo de la Habana in Madrid for €63 million. Moreover, the Catalan company has a second development in the neighbourhood of Chamberi in the Spanish capital. In Barcelona, Uniq is building two properties for prime housing on Calles Nicaragua and Numancia in the Les Corts district.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Angel Cano’s Firm to Market Flats in Benidorm’s Giant In Tempo

4 October 2018

The proptech firm Sonneil will market 270 flats, seeking clients for the tallest residential building in Spain.

After years of paralysis, the tallest residential building in Spain, at 192 meters, will begin work on its last phase of construction, while starting sales of its 270 flats. The SVP fund (which owns the property) has commissioned the real estate company Sonneil, owned by Ángel Cano, the former CEO of BBVA, to sell the apartments on an exclusive basis. Sales are expected to begin shortly, the proptech firm announced on its website.

Sonneil is a proptech, which apply information technology to real estate transactions, based in Alicante. Its founder is Alfredo Millá, an ex-executive at Solvia, Sabadell’s servicer. Juan Pedro Moreno, president of Accenture; Albert Ribera, founder of Trovit; and the lawyer Juan Busquets are partners.

Last year, Sevenzonic, run by several former executives at BBVA, including Ángel Cano, and Javier Rodríguez Zapatero, former general manager of Google in Spain and president of the ISDI business school, also invested in the company. Sevenzonic was founded to invest in new technology companies.

The real estate agency Sonneil has not revealed any potential prices or the date that sales will begin. This firm is highly focused on international clients looking for coastal housing in Spain. More than 60% of the buyers it attracts are foreigners, mainly Belgians, Nordics, Dutch and Germans.

As a proptech company, Sonneil uses hyper-segmented online marketing tools segmented by client type, through social networks, Google Ads and web positioning. The real estate company seeks to reduce the number of intermediaries that act in a sale, especially in the case of international clients, becoming a single agent.

Construction on the building began in 2007. Its developer, Olga Urbana, was declared insolvent in 2014. Sareb (the bad bank of the Spanish government,) became its main creditor, selling the debt to SVP Global last year. The American fund took over the project and announced its intent to finish construction on the skyscraper, which has been paralysed for years.

Original Story: Cinco Días – Alfonso Simón Ruiz

Translation: Richard Turner

A Turning Point for the In Tempo Building in Benidorm

1 June 2018 – Diario Información

The In Tempo building in Benidorm is starting a new phase and putting an end to the previous phase that was fraught with economic and legal problems. The new company that acquired the property from the bad bank  Sareb has now received the green light to finish the construction work and start marketing the homes in the tallest residential building in Europe given that it has been officially granted all of the construction permits. In addition, the property developer behind the tower block, the company Olga Urbana, has also ceased to exist.

Just three days ago, the Town Hall of Benidorm, through a decree from the Councillor for Urban Planning, Lourdes Caselles, to which this newspaper has had access, approved the issue of the transfer of the urban planning licence that was previously held by Olga Urbana SL, the property developer behind the project, to the new company that owns the building, Teach Spire SLU.

That licence was granted to the former company in 2006 for the construction of a building comprising 269 homes, 398 parking spaces and 133 storerooms (…). The same decree also covers the transfer of the construction project from the former company in favour of the new owner. With this step, the new company now has all the rights and obligations in place resulting from the transfer of the licences.

Now, the new company has the green light to finish the construction work. The new owner of the In Tempo building in Benidorm, the firm SVP Global, forecasts that the property will become a reality within 12 months and that it will be able to start marketing the 269 homes before the summer, according to a statement issued in April.

In the autumn, the Company for the Management of Assets proceeding from the Restructuring of the Banking System (Sareb) sold the property’s debt to SVP Global for more than €60 million. The bad bank had been left with a loan amounting to €108 million five years ago albeit secured by the tallest building in the Community of Valencia.

The project, which was first approved almost a decade ago, has a 93% completion rate and what has been built is in a good condition despite the fact that the construction work was suspended four years ago after the Alicante-based property developer Olga Urbana filed for bankruptcy (…).

Not only has a chapter been closed for In Tempo in terms of the building permits, but also, the property developer Olga Urbana has also ceased to exist following its bankruptcy. The Official Gazette of the Mercantile Registry (Borme) of Alicante published the inscription of the dissolution of the company yesterday, issued by Mercantile Court number 1 in Alicante, a process that was started in 2014, according to the publication (…).

Original story: Diario Información (by A. Vicente)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Benidorm Fever: TM Sells 15 Apartments in Just One Day

10 May 2018 – El Confidencial

More than 40 homes have been reserved in just two weeks. And fifteen of them in the first 24 hours. TM Grupo Inmobiliario, the owner of the largest batch of land located one street from the beach in Benidorm, one of the most sought-after markets along the coast at the moment, has put the first units up for sale of what is going to be its most ambitious project ever.

In January, the Alicante-based company acquired 165,000 m2 of land in Benidorm, which will initially, in its first phase, be home to two buildings comprising 132 homes each, containing two-, three- and four-bedrooms. The appetite for buying homes in the city has been so great that in just two weeks, 15% of the units that are going to be built in this first phase have already been reserved.

The prices of the two-bedroom homes range between €275,000 and €325,000, whilst the prices of the three-bedroom homes range from €325,000 to €400,000. To give us an idea, on the market at the moment, you can find properties ranging from small apartments costing just €20,000, to detached homes costing as much as €4 million. The reality is that, since its origins as a tourist destination, Benidorm has always been suitable for all kinds of budgets.

In fact, the town boasts the most expensive property prices per square metre in the region, with an average of €1,585/m2 – for new build and second-hand homes – above the prices paid in neighbouring Altea, Calpe and l’Alfàs del Pi, according to data from Tinsa. Although prices have fallen by almost 44% since their peak, it is one of the places in Spain that is enjoying a fair wind. In the last year, prices have risen by 11%, according to the latest report from the appraisal company about the coastal market.

The land, acquired in January this year, is located one street back from Playa de Poniente in Benidorm – right opposite the In Tempo skyscraper, marketing of which will also begin shortly – and around 1,200 homes are planned for the site. In addition to the residential area, the overall project will also include commercial and social use plots. Moreover, the land is located next to the Sunset Drive development, another one of TM’s projects in Benidorm, which has been completely sold.

The project was chosen in accordance with the bases of an ideas tender held for that purpose, to provide an avant-garde serene and long-lasting image, characteristic of the environment in Benidorm. The winning studio was Gea Arquitectos, which has already collaborated with TM on other developments (…).

The buildings are going to be located on the highest part of the plot and their layout is going to be designed to maximise the sea views as you go up (…).

Given its design, TM’s project is reminiscent of Promora’s Delfín Tower, which is going to occupy the last available plot on the beachfront in Benidorm. The main difference between the two stems from the fact that the latter is a luxury housing project, comprising 44 homes containing two-, three- and four-bedrooms, spread over 22 floors. Almost 50% of the properties have been sold and the project holds the record for the most expensive home ever sold in Benidorm. According to different sources, the home is located on the 16th floor and the buyer, a foreigner, paid just over €2 million for it.

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

British Fund Behind Purchase of Benidorm’s Kronos Building for €20M

21 March 2018 – Alicante Plaza

A British fund is behind the purchase of most of the apartments in the Kronos building in Benidorm. According to local sources, of the more than 150 homes that are owned by Sareb, 136 are going to be taken over by a British fund. The operation is worth more than €20 million and just needs to be signed, something that should happen within the coming days.

As Alicante Plaza published on Tuesday, the so-called “bad bank” has managed to sell the properties that it owned in the city’s skyscraper in just one year. Around 20 homes have been sold to individuals, whilst the remainder will end up in the hands of a British fund.

But that is not the full story. It would seem that, at the end of last year, Sareb sold the storerooms and garages that it also owned in the building, the fifth highest skyscraper in Benidorm, and one of the tallest in Spain.

The tower has 41 storeys and was conceived as a luxury residential property: the structure occupies less than 20% of the plot. The remainder is used for common areas and recreation with two swimming pools, one for adults and one for children, a gym, a football pitch, padel and tennis courts, as well as extensive green areas.

The building was constructed by the Valencian property developer Grupo García Ojeda in 2005, and the keys were handed over three years later. But the crisis hit the sale of the apartments and ten years later almost all of the flats were still on the market

In this way, Sareb is getting rid of one of the skyscrapers that was hit the hardest by the “bursting” of the real estate bubble. It is worth remembering that Sareb rescued nine savings banks, including properties and loans to property developers. The latter was an operation that saw the skyscraper awarded to the “bad bank, whose debt used to belong to one of the companies owned by Grupo García Ojeda. Kronos has more than one link to Valencia, given that it was designed by the architecture firm MAPRC, which is also from that city.

Original story: Alicante Plaza (by Alba Mercader)

Translation: Carmel Drake