Tag: Calle Preciados

Gran Vía: The New Showcase For Flagship Fashion Stores

5 September 2016 – Expansión

Along the one-hundred year old Gran Vía, fashion houses and hotels are now competing with restaurants, cafes, theatres and cinemas to occupy space on the sought-after street in Madrid. The thoroughfare was known as the Madrilenian Broadway in its heyday, thanks to the profusion of cinemas and theatres that it housed and which, to a lesser extent, still remain today.

In the race to set up shop on the busiest thoroughfare in Madrid, the largest brands and more contemporary designer hotels now occupy buildings that were formerly inhabited by banks, insurance companies and large cinemas.

In this sense, the size of the buildings on Gran Vía, makes them more attractive assets for fashion chains to house their large flagship stores than, for example, the properties on Calle Preciados. According to a calculation by the consultancy firm CBRE, in 2014 and 2015, real estate investment on the street amounted to €1,100 million.

Undoubtedly, the most significant operation in recent years was Pontegadea’s purchase of the property at Gran Vía, 32 in January 2015. The investment arm of Amancio Ortega, the founder and majority shareholder of the retail giant Inditex, paid €400 million for the asset. And that is the building that Primark chose to locate its flagship store, which occupies five storeys over 12,400 sqm. The megastore has become a tourist attraction in itself and there were traffic jams and queues at its doors during the first few months after its opening.

Following this example, other brands have opened stores on Gran Vía in the last year. For example, the fashion accessory chain Parfois and the Spanish jewellery firm Tous, have taken up residence at numbers 42 and 38, respectively. In addition, the cosmetics firm Nyx and the sports brand Adidas both opened new stores at numbers 21 and 36 of the Madrilenian street in the spring of 2016.

Moreover, the stretch of Gran Vía that runs from Plaza de Callao to Plaza de España has been revitalised in recent months, with the arrival of the gift and accessories chain Ale-hop at number 74, the perfume store Druni, at number 61 and Axa’s purchase of the Rex cinema building.

The future renovation of that building, alongside the refurbishment of the controversial Edificio España, which has changed hands several times in the last two years, will also help to reactivate this final stretch of the street.

Other important transactions on Gran Vía have involved the premises at number 44, measuring 500 sqm. That property, which used to house a branch of Bankia, was acquired by Hines at the beginning of the year from the Baraka group – the current owner of Edificio España – for almost €40 million. Meanwhile, the Socimi Saint Croix acquired another property on Gran Vía – specifically the building located at number 55 – for €13 million in March this year.

The size of the buildings on Gran Vía makes them ideal properties for flagship stores.

Original story: Expansión (by R.Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

ECI Puts Logistics Assets Worth c.€300M Up For Sale

10 August 2016 – Expansión

The distribution giant El Corte Inglés has engaged Morgan Stanley to find investors who may be interested in acquiring assets worth between €200 million and €300 million, according to real estate sources.

Specifically, the company chaired by Dimas Gimeno intends to divest 33 assets, which have a surface area spanning more than 500,000 sqm, as well as five plots of land.

The assets on the market include rental contracts guaranteed for five, ten, fifteen and twenty years; and the deadline for submitting non-binding offers will close at the end of September.

Sources consulted indicate that some of the warehouses included in the sale are not sufficiently tall enough to meet with current demands from investors for this type of asset, which has forced them to adjust the duration of their contracts, as well as the rental prices.

The batch for sale, which comprises 38 assets in total, including the plots of land, contains: El Corte Inglés’ logistics centres in Bisbal del Penedès (Tarragona) and on La Peluquera industrial estate in Madrid. It also includes other assets on Las Atalayas industrial estate (in Alicante) and the Goro en Telde estate (in Gran Canaria).

By contrast, El Corte Inglés has not included any assets currently considered to be strategic in the batch. Thus, for example, the jewel in its logistics assets crown will not be included: its mega centre in the south of Madrid.

Reduce debt

The company, which seeks to reduce its debt balance with these divestment operations, may consider selling other types of non-strategic real estate assets in the future, as Expansión revealed in March.

These real estate asset divestments follow others completed by El Corte Inglés in recent years. In this way, in the summer of 2013, the distribution group completed the sale of a building next to Plaza de Cataluña in Barcelona to the fund manager IBA Capital.

Months later, it sold another property to the same investor on Calle Preciados in Madrid.

Other divestments

Last December, the chain sold another building in the iconic Puerta del Sol in Madrid for €65 million to the US fund Thor Equities. At the time, the group agreed to continue to occupy the building, which houses its book store and is located in one of the most important shopping areas of the capital, for another year.

Similarly, in February, the group sold the building that it had acquired ten years ago on Calle Fontanella in Barcelona for €17 million to a Russian investor, which plans to convert the property into a hotel.

By contrast, El Corte Inglés has also completed several important asset purchases in recent years. In this way, the company acquired a plot of land from the railway infrastructure manager Adif, right on Paseo de la Castellana for €136 million in 2014. This plot of land is located next to one of the company’s main shopping centres in the capital, in Nuevos Ministerios.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Foot Locker To Open A Megastore On c/Preciados

16 April 2015 – Expansión

The sports equipment company is going to lease the building located at number 6 on the Madrid street, which has a surface area of 2,000 square metres.

Changes are afoot on Spain’s most sought after shopping street. In a few weeks time, the building located at number six Calle Preciados in Madrid will house a new tenant: the American company Foot Locker. The firm, which specialises in sports equipment will replace H&M, which vacated the property at the end of March to open its flagship store in Spain.

Foot Locker – which until now leased a smaller property at number 17 (on the same street) – will incorporate its signature brand the “House of Hoops” into its new premises in Preciados; the brand was created by the American company in conjunction with the sports brand Nike. The decision to open a flagship store, which will include this new concept, comes after Foot Locker has been testing its new brand, which specialises in basketball-related products, in a pop-up store in other premises on Gran Vía, 36, just a stone’s throw from Preciados.

The building, which is owned by a Spanish family office, has a surface area of 1,960 square metres, distributed over six floors. CBRE advised on the transaction.

The move represents the largest rental transaction involving retail premises on the Spanish high street in 2015. There have not been any major changes of tenants on Preciados for almost two years; the Madrid street competes with Portal del Ángel in Barcelona as the most expensive shopping street in Spain.

“It is a highly sought-after retail area that is very popular with large brands, and so it is rare for property to become available”, says the consultancy firm Ascana.

Last year, only four stores had a change of tenants and only one of those affected premises larger than 100 square metres. Specifically, a store measuring 110 square metres, which is now leased by the make-up firm Mac, after Bijou Brigitte vacated the property. Numerous offers are now expected for the premises at number 17, which Foot Locker has left empty.

Rental prices

This scarce supply has meant that rental prices on Preciados have not been hit by the decreases experienced on properties in the rest of the Spanish market. There, rental prices reach €248/month per square metre for the smallest premises (those measuring between 100m2 and 200m2), according to real estate sources.

Rental prices in the larger stores, such as the one leased by Foot Locker, are lower, amounting to around €100 per square metre per month.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake