Tag: co-working

Excem to Promote 5,000 Luxury Homes in the Costa del Sol & Murcia

21 November 2018 – Eje Prime

Excem is increasing its commitment to the luxury residential sector. The company owned by the Hatchwell family has set itself the objective of promoting 5,000 luxury homes on the Costa del Sol and Murcia, within the context of the development of its LOV Real Estate division. To launch these homes, which will follow in the footsteps of a development on Calle Fuencarral in Madrid, Excem has created the brand Solomon Homes.

Excem’s plans with LOV Real Estate involve starting to promote its entire land bank in 2019. The first projects to be commercialised in the south include four promotions in Condado de Alhama, one of the best resorts on the Costa Cálida. In that complex, LOV has already started work on the construction of Villa Primavera, Villa Amapola and Villa Atardecer, as well as Edificio Poniente. The company plans to hand over those homes next summer.

Further south, on the Costa del Sol, the property developer is finalising the signing of several projects with “the same model of avant-garde and unique architecture” in the area, on the fashionable coastline of the Spanish residential market. The company expects to achieve a return of more than 20% in each of its projects.

The starting point for luxury

Nevertheless, Excem’s starting point with LOV Real Estate will be a 25-home development on Calle Fuencarral in Madrid. The group’s first development will involve an investment of €14 million and will be located at number 142 of the Madrilenian street, right in the heart of the Spanish capital.

The company has already started work and its pre-sales amount to 80% with just four homes left to market. The buyers include investors and architects, explain sources at Excem (…).

The property developer plans to handover those homes, which will have between one and three bedrooms, before the end of 2019. The homes will have surface areas ranging from 55 m2 to 175 m2, and prices starting at €400,000, and going up to €1.5 million (…).

Excem: true to its roadmap 

The last investment vehicle launched by Excem Real Estate, the real estate division of the Excem Group, was Siwork, specialising in co-working and for which the group has partnered with WeWork, as Eje Prime revealed. With Excem Capital Partners Siwork, the group stays true to its roadmap: to be present in the Spanish real estate sector with three Socimis, diversified by type of asset and focused on millennial clients.

The first of the three companies launched by the Israeli family in Spain was Excem Capital Partners Sociedad de Inversión Residencial. Specialising in rental housing aimed at millennials, the company debuted on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) in July worth €17 million. Currently, the company owns 28 assets in Spain and has several shareholders ranging from private investors to business people and family offices.

Besides Excem Capital Partners Sociedad de Inversión Residencial, the Hatchwell family also operates in the Spanish real estate sector with Situr, a firm specialising in tourist properties such as apartments and hostels. The investment target for this second Socimi is approximately €250 million between now and the rest of 2018. The company has set itself the objective of having 3,500 beds in a dozen buildings, located primarily in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as in other tourist cities around the country.

With the activation of Siwork, the plans for this new company involve carrying out an investment of €200 million to acquire a dozen buildings in Spain’s main cities.

The Hatchwell family’s links with the real estate world date back to the beginning of the 1970s, when Mauricio Hatchwell Toledano founded the group, specialising first in cement and later in technology and real estate. Nowadays, the company is led by his children David, Philip and Kareen Hatchwell Altaras.

Original story: Eje Prime (by J. Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

OneCoWork to Open a New Centre on Via Laietana in 2019

29 October 2018 – Eje Prime

OneCoWork is strengthening its commitment to Barcelona and is broadening its horizons. The company, founded in 2016 by the Israeli businessman Uri Nachoom, is going to open its third co-working centre in the Catalan capital next spring, according to reports from the company speaking to Eje Prime.

The new centre is going to be located on Via Laietana. With this operation, OneCoWork will have three shared working spaces in Barcelona. It also has a presence in Marina Port Vell and Plaza Cataluña. The company expects to end 2019 with a community of 1,100 members.

Similarly, another of the group’s objectives involves opening a centre in Madrid at the end of next year. Although the exact location of that property has not been decided yet, the company is already considering several possibilities in prime areas of the Spanish capital. According to explanations from sources at the company “everything depends on the supply in the market”.

Sevilla, Málaga and Valencia are also in the spotlight of OneCoWork, which is already studying which cities to open more offices in. Nevertheless, first, the company wants to gain a presence in the main European capitals: Paris, London, Amsterdam and Berlin are some of its objectives in the short term.

The company wants to close 2020 with twelve centres and a community of 10,000 members located all over Europe. For the time being, all of its funds are its own, but “as we grow, we will have to rely on external investments or agreements with building owners or third parties”, say sources at the company.

Going for gold in Barcelona 

OneCoWork opened its first centre in Marina Port Vell in November 2016. The company started out in a building measuring just over 1,000 m2. Around 200 professionals work there now and it reached an occupancy rate of 100% in just three months.

“We really value the city of Barcelona. It is the perfect place for attracting talent and for businesses to evolve”, explain sources at the company. Proof of that commitment to the city came with the opening of its second centre in Plaza Cataluña, in the heart of the Catalan capital, at the beginning of September. That space, distributed over six floors, has capacity for 400 members and is home to companies such as N26. That firm occupies an entire floor in OneCoWork’s newest co-working office.

Moreover, OneCoWork is also considering entering the 22@ district of Barcelona and other areas, “an ambition that will certainly materialise in 2020”.

In parallel to its own projects, the Spanish co-working has also started to invest in startups and to this end, holds a stake in two emerging companies.

Original story: Eje Prime (by B. Seijo & J. Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Spaces Launches its Third Co-Working in Madrid on Paseo de la Castellana

24 October 2018 – Eje Prime

Spaces is launching its third project in Madrid. The co-working space brand, owned by Regus, has opened a complex located at number 200 Paseo de la Castellana, in the heart of the Spanish capital’s business district.

The company leased 5,155 m2 of space in the complex in February. The facilities comprise more than 160 offices and 700 workstations. The space is owned by the Socimi Silvercode Investments, although it is managed by Drago.

The Castellana 200 property is the third office that Spaces has opened in the Spanish capital, where it also has another complex in Madrid Río and another in Atocha. In addition, Regus has a fourth asset in the 22@ district of Barcelona.

Castellana 200 was built in 2011 and spans an office area comprising two buildings, one smaller one, which Spaces has moved into, and another measuring 15,127 m2, which is home to tenants such as Discovery Channel, Linkedin and CBRE. The companies that have already decided to move into Spaces Castellana 200 include Ikan Biotech, Pervasive Technologies and Alliance Borntein, amongst others.

Spaces, founded in Amsterdam in 2008, competes directly with other groups such as WeWork. The company is experiencing exponential growth with the opening of 130 new centres, whereby it hopes to close 2018 with 150 centres in total all around the world. Moreover, it is consolidating its position in large markets such as in the USA, the UK, France and another 30 countries around the world.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Utopicus Opens its 4th Co-working Centre in Madrid

24 October 2018 – Expansión

Utopicus, the co-working platform owned by Colonial, has opened its fourth centre in Madrid, in the heart of the Azca financial district. The new office building, which has a surface area of 2,000 m2 spread over three floors, is located at number 62 Calle Orense.

This building is the fourth office that Utopicus has inaugurated in Madrid, after the opening of Duque de Rivas, Colegiata and Doctor Esquerdo, and the fifth in Spain, after the opening of its Plaza Cataluña space in Barcelona, located on Ronda Sant Pere, 16

The company has plans to operate 10 centres in Spain over the coming months with new openings in the pipeline in Madrid on Príncipe de Vergara and in Barcelona on Clementina, Gal·la Placidia, Gran Vía and Ciutat de Granada.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Co-Working Spaces in Madrid & Barcelona Rise by 71% YoY to September

23 October 2018 – Eje Prime

Co-working spaces are on a roll in Spain. This global phenomenon in the office market is also reflected in ratios that keep on growing. In Madrid and Barcelona alone, 55,900 m2 of this type of flexible office space was leased between January and September, which represented an increase of 71% with respect to the same period last year.

According to the Flexible spaces in Spain study, compiled by the consultancy firm Cushman&Wakefield, during the first nine months of the year, 26,800 m2 of co-working office space was leased in Madrid and 29,100 m2 in Barcelona.

This growth is the result of the commitment to co-working spaces by large corporations. According to explanations provided in the report, “at the beginning of the 2000s, small spaces predominated, occupied by self-employed people and freelancers; nowadays, those spaces still exist, but the potential of the co-working phenomenon has led to companies such as Banco Santander (Openbank), Accenture and Everis, amongst others, also using flexible spaces for some of their activities”.

The boom in flexible and shared office space intensified in 2014, the first year of the recovery. Besides large corporate groups, which rely on this office model for optimising their real estate resources and the productivity of their employees, international co-working giants have arrived in Spain in recent years to create supply to meet the growing demand.

WeWork and Spaces (owned by Regus), global specialists in this segment, already have expansion plans for the domestic market. The same is happening with the main Socimis, such as Merlin and Colonial, which, in addition to promoting brands that manage co-working spaces, are also adapting several of their properties to convert them into flexible offices.

Madrid and Barcelona are the focus of this market. WeWork already has 35,000 m2 of office space leased in the two capitals. It is managing one fifth, 7,000 m2, from 22@, the technological hub of Barcelona, one of the epicentres of co-working in Spain. Spaces is planning to grow in the same district, where it already has 6,000 m2 of space across several buildings.

In terms of the large Spanish real estate companies, Merlin and Colonial are, to date, the firms that have backed this new trend most convincingly Both have entered the sector by purchasing or teaming up with specialist companies this market. Colonial acquired the brand Utopicus at the end of 2017, as revealed by Eje Prime, and now has a commitment to open ten new co-working centres from 2019, which will span a total of 15,000 m2 between Madrid and Barcelona.

Meanwhile, Merlin has launched the brand Twisttt, through Loom House, a Spanish shared office manager in which the Socimi owns more than 30%. Other domestic players such as Inmobiliaria del Sur have already made investments in this sector. In October last year, the Andalucian real estate firm launched iSspaces, a co-working centre in Sevilla measuring 1,800 m2 (…).

The identity of the next players to enter the stage is a mystery, but the fact that co-working has a long journey ahead in the office market in Spain and around the world is very much a reality.

Original story: Eje Prime (by J. Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Núñez i Navarro Invests €25M in Site of Former Metalarte Factory to Build 80 Homes

19 October 2018 – Eje Prime

Núñez i Navarro has not forgotten about its land on the site of the former Metalarte factory. The property developer chaired by Josep Lluís Núñez is going to invest €25 million in the construction of a residential development in the Barcelona municipality of Sant Joan Despí.

The company is planning to build eighty homes, in total, with parking spaces and storerooms in the same property, which will be constructed between this autumn and 2021. 61 of the homes in the development will be private, whilst eleven will be social housing units and seven will be granted to the Town Hall of Sant Joan Despí by the Catalan company.

Núñez i Navarro acquired the former Metalarte factory in 2001. Almost twenty years later, the property developer is recovering the land to build its second residential project in the Barcelonan municipality. The company has just carried out a comprehensive renovation of the farmhouse where the Trias de Bes family used to spend its summer holidays to convert it into a school.

At the moment, the Núñez i Navarro group has twenty-three projects underway, corresponding to an investment of €250 million in Cataluña. Barcelona, Sabadell, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat and Sant Joan Despí are the cities chosen by this unlisted property developer to build 947 homes, two hotels, a co-working centre and 69 commercial premises or offices.

In fact, the company is one of the firms in the sector that has best overcome the crisis, with its low debt policy. Proof of that is the investment effort that it has undertaken in the Catalan region over the last five years, where it has disbursed almost €400 million.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Regus on the Hunt for Partners to Open 550 Centres Across Spain

8 October 2018 – Eje Prime

Regus wants to expand to the last corner in Spain. The supplier of flexible workspaces has set itself the objective of opening 550 centres in the domestic market and, in order to develop that plan, the company has launched a franchise model through which “we want to be everywhere”, said the Director-General of Regus in Spain, Philippe Jiménez, speaking to Eje Prime.

The franchisees of Regus, as well as their clients “will enjoy the same services as the company’s own centres”, said Jiménez. Currently, there is an “exceptional demand” for flexible workspaces in Spain and the company wants to provide a service that “would be impossible” without this new model, recognises the executive.

“We want to grow quickly and for that, the franchise model is necessary”, explains the Director. In exchange, the company offers its partners the same operating and marketing support that is provided to Regus’s own centres.

Jiménez says that “there will not be any limitations in terms of location”. “We like metropolitan areas in large cities, but also in secondary and tertiary cities too”, he continued. The only conditions that Regus is going to impose are that the franchisee must assume the full investment of the centre and that “the quality of our centres must be maintained”.

“For us, Barcelona and Madrid are the same as any other smaller city”, highlights the executive, who believes that with this expansion, through franchises, the company will provide clients with an increasingly “more efficient and more technological” service.

The new expansion formula that Regus is launching in Spain is a “mandate” that comes from the firm’s parent company, the giant IWG, but one that Jiménez supports. “Having centres all over the place allows you to be more productive”, explains the executive.

A former director of Día will lead the franchise area 

Regus’s new plan in Spain will also have a new director. Luis Herranz will be responsible for managing the expansion of the franchises. Recruited a month ago, the director comes from Día, where he has been working for the last four years. Since 2016, the executive has been the Director of Franchises and Master-franchises at the supermarket chain.

“We are adopting the franchise formula as a key lever in our growth strategy to expand Regus”, says Herranz on the social network Linkedin. It is a “business model that is simple to manage and that generates good returns”, says the director.

In terms of returns, Jiménez says that the flexible office model offers “large cash yields and significant double-digit investment returns”. “The sector of offices as a service is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world, and has become the new target for investors and franchise operators”, highlights the Director General of Regus in Spain.

New openings and targets: Murcia, Toledo, Sant Cugat and Gijón

Whilst it searches for its first franchisees, Regus is continuing with its growth plan in Spain. Already present in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Málaga, Bilbao, Palma and Zaragoza, in November, Regus is going to add Murcia and Toledo to its footprint in Spain.

Over the last year, the company has opened 10,600 m2 of new office space. The most recent centres to be inaugurated have been those in Alcobendas and on c/Ortega y Gasset in Madrid; Diagonal Hightech and Sarriá Fórum, in Barcelona; and the Torre Aragonia centre in Zaragoza (…).

The main brand of the giant IWG, which also operates the co-working firm Spaces in Spain, Regus has a presence in 120 countries and more than 1,100 cities with 3,500 centres. The company provides services to more than 2.5 million clients around the world.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Jabier Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Urbania to Open 2 Coworking Offices in Barcelona in September

16 July 2018 – Eje Prime 

Urbania is diversifying within the real estate market by investing in more sectors on the rise. After launching Syllabus, its brand specialising in halls of residences for students, just a few months ago, the group is now promoting coworking offices and shared working spaces across the country, according to a statement issued by the company.

Monday is the name that the group has chosen for this new venture, which will inaugurate its first two office centres in Barcelona in September. Both will have a surface area of 2,000 m2, with capacity for 200 people and they will be located in La Barceloneta and on Avenida Tibidabo in the Catalan capital.

In addition, Urbania has explained that it is considering opening two new premises in Barcelona before the end of the year. This first phase will be the kick off to an “ambitious” national expansion plan, although the company declined to share further details in this regard.

The coworking in La Barceloneta will be located opposite the sea and beach of the same name, whilst the office on Avenida Tibidabo, at the opposite end of the city, in the foothills of the mountains, will have a gym, squash courts and a swimming pool. Monday has already started to market its first two spaces and expects to have 50% of the two centres reserved within the next few weeks.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Colonial Inaugurates its First Utopicus Co-Working Centre in Barcelona

28 May 2018 – Eje Prime

Colonial is preparing to launch its co-working business in Barcelona. On 31 May, the Socimi is going to inaugurate its first Utopicus shared work centre, which will open its doors at number 16 Ronda de Sant Pere, in Plaza Cataluña, as revealed by Eje Prime.

This space will have a surface area of 1,400 m2 spread over six floors. Colonial, which has carried out the renovation of the building, owned by Maximus Ventures, will offer a variety of services including a cafeteria, fixed offices, coworking spaces, a terrace and an urban vegetable patch. Moreover, the group is getting ready to open more new Utopicus centres.

The firm’s second space in Barcelona is going to be located at number 9 Calle Bretón de los Herreros, in the heart of the Gracia neighbourhood. The space, which will open its doors in June, will measure approximately 1,700 m2 spread over four floors.

The third coworking centre that Colonial is going to open will be larger, since it will be located in a building that, in part, is owned by the Socimi, which purchased it from BBVA for €14 million. That co-working space will span 4,200 m2 and will be located in the former headquarters of Albertis.

Colonial acquired a majority stake in the Madrid-based Utopicus with a view to developing a new line of business. Utopicus already operates three centres in Madrid, located on Calles Duque de Rivas, Colegiata and Doctor Esquerdo. With this investment, the Socimi will help the company, which has a total supply of 3,500 m2, to boost its business with the opening of new spaces in Madrid and across the rest of Spain.

Original story: Eje prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Alibaba Signs Lease for its New HQ in Spain

14 December 2017 – Eje Prime

The Chinese giant Alibaba is shaking up the office market in Madrid as the year-end approaches. The Asian e-commerce group has been negotiating for several months to open offices in Madrid from where to lead its operations in the Spanish market. In the end, it has signed a rental agreement for its Spanish headquarters at number 4 Avenida Europa, in Alcobendas, a building owned by the real estate group Gosa. Until now, the technology firm Paypal also had its headquarters in the building (…).

Alibaba will move its Spanish team to the new offices in Alcobendas, which measure approximately 1,000 m2, in the middle of February, according to sources close to the operation. At the moment, the Asian giant’s employees are managing the firm’s Spanish operations from a co-working office. Alibaba has declined to comment on the planned move.

Alibaba’s arrival at number 4 Avenida Europa comes just months after Paypal’s departure from the same building. Currently, that US firm shares offices with Google and Intel in Torre Picasso, as revealed by Eje Prime.

The property that will house Alibaba’s new offices is also home to the headquarters of the cosmetics group Clarins and the Chinese firm Ansteel. Commscope is another company that had its headquarters located in the building until the middle of 2017, but in July it decided to move to number 19 on the same street.

Alcobendas has become one of the hubs of business excellence in Madrid. Indra, VASS, Emerson, Televent, Acciona, Bankinter, Europcar, Canon and Toyota are just some of the multinational companies that have chosen to locate their offices in the Madrilenian town.

Alibaba’s new office, which the company has been anticipating since February, has the capacity to accommodate the almost forty people that make up its Spanish workforce. The team is led by Estela Ye, who was promoted to General Manager of the company in Spain in March.

The office market in Madrid

Leasing of office space during the third quarter of the year in Madrid amounted to 93,173 m2, which represented an increase of 2% with respect to the same period in 2016, although, according to a report from Aguirre Newman, 16 fewer operations were closed (96).

One of the most active areas in the capital was the Other Business District (RDN), which accounted for 31% of the total space leased. Nevertheless, the report highlights that leasing in the Central Business District (27% of the total) and in the OUT area (23%), saw the most significant increases, more than doubling their figures with respect to the same period in 2016.

In terms of rents, the maximum recorded during Q3 was €36/m2/month, whilst the average rent in the CBD area was €28.96/m2/month. In the Decentralised area, the average rent amounted to €12.71/m2/month.

Original story: Eje Prime (by A. Pijuán)

Translation: Carmel Drake