Town Hall of Madrid Reorganises 2,500 Hectares of Land in Valdecarros & Los Cerros into Smaller, More Feasible Areas

16 October 2018 – Inmodiario

The Town Hall of Madrid has agreed to submit to public information the Advance documents detailing two Modifications to the General Plan for four areas belonging to the developments in the south-east: Valdecarros-Cantiles de Manzanares, with a surface area of 1,928 hectares, and Los Cerros-Ensanche de San Fernando, with a surface area of 494 hectares. The main objective of these documents is to adjust urban growth to the real needs of the city, establishing a new framework for the economic, social and environmental feasibility of future developments.

Moreover, the documents prioritise the defence of the general interest of the city in two senses:

They ensure the environmental values of certain areas in the aforementioned zones through the classification of the land.

They increase the economic guarantees and legal commitments of the private management and execution, and they ensure the implementation of facilities, services and infrastructure to the real capacities of the public administrations.

The economic and legal guarantees affect the public and private agents. On the one hand, the capacity of private players to carry out the investment necessary to manage and urbanise and, on the other hand, the public capacity to implement services and amenities.

To streamline the use of the land, a new land classification system has been established for these areas, which allows for their gradual planning and development, in smaller sections. In this way, the urban planning documents program smaller execution units to ensure the production of land for homes, economic activities and amenities in timeframes that match the needs of the city. In this way, the future developments may be adapted to social, economic, technological and environmental changes that evolve in the future, and will avoid the execution of urbanisations and the inappropriate or unnecessary regulation of buildings.

The result of the land reclassification is 2,422 buildable hectares (…).

In total, the potential capacity of the land in Los Cerros and Ensanches de San Fernando decreases by 28.45%, from 14,900 to 10,700 in terms of the number of homes, and by 23.70%, from 570,000 m2 to 440,000 m2 in terms of the buildable surface area for economic activities.

The first development is scheduled for 2022 in the north of the region (….).

Original story: Inmodiario 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sevilla’s Town Hall to Reclassify La Gavidia Police Station for Tertiary Use

18 July 2018 – Diario de Sevilla

The Urban Planning Department has sent the Ministry of the Environment the necessary documentation for the regional entity to prepare the mandatory report about the area surrounding La Gavidia. With this step, the process has been started to change the use of the former police station, which will become a tertiary use asset, as approved by the Town Hall.

The manager for Urban Planning, Ignacio Pozuelo, explained this morning that the change in La Gavidia’s classification will allow it to be used for a number of purposes, including for small and medium-sized businesses, offices, hotels, recreational use, cinemas, gym and public services.

The ownership and management of the venue are open to three formulae. They may both be public or private. The second option would involve the sale of the rationalist-style building. A third option would involve ceding only the management of the property to a private entity.

The environmental report is expected to be completed by the end of 2018. Once it has been approved by the Regional Government, the PGOU will have to be modified to reflect the new classification, a long and complex process that will coincide with the local elections in 2019 and the start of the new mandate.

The current General Plan for Urban Planning (PGOU) classified Las Gavidia police station as a Service of Public and Social Interest (SIPS). Zoido’s majority government began the steps to change that classification into a large retail space. The elections in 2015 and the loss of the mayoral office by the PP put a halt to the process. Espadas’s team is now looking to classify the property for tertiary use, which would allow for it to be used in any of the ways mentioned above.

Original story: Diario de Sevilla (by Diego J. Géniz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Inditex Invests €57M In New Logistics Platform In A Coruña

1 June 2017 – Expansión

The Inditex Group is going to invest €57 million on the construction of a logistics platform for the receipt, storage and classification of textiles and accessories in A Laracha (A Coruña). The new site will work in a “totally integrated” way with the Group’s existing logistics platform in Arteixo.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

RTVE Seeks RE Agent To Help It Sell 32 Buildings For €85M

7 June 2016 – Voz Pópuli

Spain’s national broadcaster, Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE), wants to sell 32 plots of land and properties, distributed across Spain, for which it hopes to obtain proceeds of €85.6 million. The corporation has launched a competition, with a budget of €3.1 million, which aims to find an estate agent in the market of these buildings, which in several cases are empty or offer services that could be carried out in another one of its work centres. The so-called “idle assets”.

The jewel in the crown of this package of public goods is the plot of land measuring 245,000 sqm that RTVE owns in the Madrilenian suburb of Las Rozas, which is valued at €49.3 million and which is currently used as the broadcasting centre for Radio 1 and Radio 5 MW. The corporation plans to move these facilities (including the antennae, which are approximately 200 metres tall) to a cheaper, less densely populated area, which would allow it to generate profits from this real estate operation.

The real estate portfolio that will go up for sale also includes the headquarters of Radio Nacional de España, located in Calle de Roc Boronat in Barcelona, and inaugurated in 2007, when Luis Fernández was President (of RTVE) and the PSOE was in Government in Moncloa. The idea is to transfer this media centre to TVE’s studios in Sant Cugat del Vallès – which will cost €3.5 million – and sell off the headquarters.

The Directors of the corporation want the estate agent who ends up being awarded the contract to take care of the necessary legal procedures to change the urban classification of this estate to obtain higher revenues from the operation, according to details specified in the competition tender document.

Buildings all over Spain

The list of properties that RTVE wants to get rid off also includes a 26,000 sqm plot of land in the Madrilenian suburb of Majadahonda (€5.3 million), a building on Calle de Colón in Valencia (€4.57 million), another on Calle de la Albareda in Zaragoza (€3.4 million) and another on Avenida Ranillas, also in the Aragonese capital, which has been valued at €4.57 million.

The following assets in the portfolio also have prices that exceed the one million euro threshold: the RNE headquarters in Valladolid (€1.02 million), the corporation’s facilities at the Edificio Venus in Murcia (€1.47 million) and the office in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (€1.46 million). The portfolio due to be sold also includes buildings and plots of land in Alicante, Mérida (Badajoz), Cádiz, Gerona, Granada, Jaén, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Lérida, Monforte de Lemos (Lugo), Palma de Mallorca, Pamplona, Pontevedra (Vigo), Santander, Tarragona, Teruel and Talavera de la Reina (Toledo). (…).

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Rubén Arranz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Guindos Changes Risk Traffic Light Amidst Criticism From Banks

5 November 2015 – Cinco Días

The Ministry of the Economy is reforming the risk traffic light originally designed by the CNMV once again. It is reducing the number of colours and is resisting criticism from banks, brokers, insurance companies and pension fund managers with an avalanche of arguments. It is also reducing its robustness. The ministry led by Luis de Guindos has sent a letter to the State Council setting out his aim of approving the regulation before the general election.

The Ministry of the Economy picked up the gauntlet from the CNMV at the end of May. The supervisor, led by Elvira Rodríguez, responsible for ensuring the proper marketing of financial products, amongst other things, designed a first draft of the risk traffic light in September 2014. (Note, the CNMV is not responsible for the oversight of deposits, since they are looked after by the Bank of Spain, or pension funds and insurance products, since they are managed by the Department for Insurance and Pension Funds).

The draft circular was modified after it was subjected to public consultation. Initially, the standard comprised a five colour scale, in a style very similar to the labelling system used for the energy classification of household appliances in Europe. The colours corresponded to the letters A to D. The CNMV took into account most of the comments it received from the sector, such as increasing the number of risk categories from five to seven.

Several months passed and Elvira Rodríguez made a complaint in Congress on 27 May, flagging that the Ministry of the Economy had not yet sent the proposal to the State Council. The ministry of Luis de Guindos replied the following day, by publishing its own risk traffic light standard for consultation. As such, it withdrew the CNMV’s power to take responsibility for it. The ministry had updated the traffic light and added another risk level. (…).

Various consultations, discussions and criticism ensued, including reprobation from the sector that this standard was unnecessarily anticipating the European rules governing the fundamental data relating to retail investment products. Those rules, approved in 2014, will enter into force at the end of 2016. The Spanish Banking Association (AEB) for example, said that it is unreasonable “to bear the costs [..] of a domestic solution that will last for one year only, not to mention the considerable confusion that it may cause for consumers”.

The latest draft of the classification, which has now been sent to the State Council, has undergone a new metamorphosis. The number of colours has been reduced (from eight) to seven and a long introduction has been included to defend its legality in the context of the new European rules and to justify the powers of the Ministry of the Economy to design this regulation. The aim is for the standard to be ready during this parliament. (…).

Original story: Cinco Días (by Pablo Martín Simón)

Translation: Carmel Drake