The Grifols Family Buys a Sought-After Property on c/Velázquez in Madrid

7 June 2019 – El Confidencial

The Grifols family, the main shareholder of the pharmaceutical group of the same name, has purchased a sought-after building on Calle Velázquez, 21 in Madrid through its Socimi Centurion Real Estate.

Until now, the property had been jointly owned by the Gancedo family, which has occupied the commercial space on the ground and first floors for more than 70 years, and another family, comprising around 20 interested members, who owned the upper four residential floors.

According to various sources, last year, the Grifols family reached an agreement with the Gancedo family to purchase its share of the property for €20 million, in a deal brokered by Savills Aguirre Newman. The sale of the residential floors of the building is now being brokered by CBRE and is expected to close in September for €32 million, taking the total purchase price to €52 million, equivalent to €8,000/m2.

Created in 2014, Centurion has been famous until now as the landlord of the pharmaceutical company, given that it owns the four buildings that house the company’s offices in Barcelona, on Calle Jesús y María, and in Sant Cugat del Vallès. This represents the Socimi’s first major purchase in Madrid and sees its entry into the luxury home market in the heart of the Spanish capital.

Original story: El Confidencial (by R. Ugalde & E. Sanz)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Aena Launches the Largest Real Estate Plan in Spain

5 April 2019 – Expansión

Aena is planning to put up for tender between 160,000 m2 and 200,000 m2 of land at Barajas airport (Madrid) and another 300,000 m2 at El Prat (Barcelona).

The airport manager plans to invest €4.3 billion in the land adjacent to the Adolfo Suárez-Barajas (Madrid) and El Prat (Barcelona) airports and intends to put the first plots up for auction this year, most likely in December.

The firm led by Maurici Lucena has detected interest from funds and Socimis in its plots, which may be used for the development of logistics assets, as well as for hotel, office and commercial use. The plots are very attractive given their unique locations and connections and the three favourite investors at this stage are Blackstone, Segro and Merlin.

A priori, Aena’s idea is to create companies together with the investing partners who will finance the developments. Prices for the land at Barajas could range between €500/m2 and €750/m2 and for finished products could reach up to €1,800/m2.

In El Prat, the prices are expected to be higher given the space restrictions there, reaching around €2,000/m2 for finished products and between €750/m2 and €1,000/m2 for undeveloped plots of land.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Carmena Approves Los Berrocales, the Largest Housing Development in the South of Madrid

24 January 2019 – El Confidencial

The Government Board chaired by Manuela Carmena will give an important boost to the urban development area of Los Berrocales on Thursday. It is the largest in the city and the first to receive the green light of the sites that comprise the project known as the Developments of the Southeast (Los Desarrollos del Sureste). The Town Hall of Madrid and the Compensation Board for the area have finally agreed the initial text for the urban planning agreement for the management of the buildable land, which will see the construction of 22,000 homes on the largest land bank in the south of the city. 50% of the homes, around 11,000, will be dedicated to social housing.

The General Plan for the city of Madrid obliges the parties involved to sign an urban planning agreement for the management of this area. The Administration and the urban planning entity are signing the commitments assumed by both for the development of the area. According to comments made to this newspaper, the agreement reflects the obligation of the Compensation Board to urbanise the land (which spans 8,305,812 m2 in total) over the course of six phases, during which the planned buildings will be constructed and the services implemented. The project will run until 2034. Moreover, the agreed texts establish the criteria to ensure the equitable distribution of profits and charges between all of the owners (…).

The total buildability amounts to 3.3 million m2, of which 2,247,121 m2 will be dedicated to residential use. 50% of that will be for private housing, 31% for price-controlled housing and 19% for social housing (that latter two percentages correspond to 11,000 homes). The rest will be dedicated to industrial, tertiary, office and commercial use.

In terms of facilities, more than 2 million m2 will be converted into green space, 1.9 million m2 will be used for public facilities and services, 1.7 million m2 for infrastructure and 228,830 m2 will be used for social integration homes.

The agreement reached with the Compensation Board represents a victory for the municipal Government and specifically, for the Sustainable Urban Development department, led by José Manuel Calvo, five months before the end of the current legislature (…).

Following the green light from the Governing Board, the text of the agreement must be submitted for public consultation – a comment period – and afterwards, it will go to the municipal plenary. From that moment, the urban planning entity will be able to start work on the execution of the project.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Paloma Esteban)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Neinor & Ática Pull Out of the Bidding for the Mestalla Plots

14 November 2018 – Eje Prime

Neinor and Ática have pulled out of the bidding for the Mestalla plots. The two property developers have decided not to formalise their interest in the land that Valencia Football Club has put up for sale during the period for the presentation of non-binding offers, which terminated on Tuesday.

In the case of the property developer led by Juan Velayos, the listed company has decided not to formalise its interest due to the high percentage of land assigned for tertiary use that VFC has put on the market; it is not offering the option for interested parties to bid for each use separately. Of the 100,000 m2 in total, approximately 40% will have to be used for commercial purposes or as offices or hotel rooms.

The withdrawal of Grupo Ática, by contrast, is based on the complexity of the operation. In its case, the candidates, which were thought to include a fund as a financial partner for the Valencia-based property developer, have considered the transaction to be too high risk, according to sources speaking to València Plaza.

The candidates that are still aspiring to take over the land include the Valencian investor group Atitlán, the fund Cerberus, the property developer Aedas and the Valencian construction company Bertolín. Nevertheless, Deloitte is planning a new bidding period during which the candidates who want to continue in the process will have to convert their bids into binding offers, a commitment that they will have to make before the end of the year, on the basis of what has been seen to date.

Until now, the club has not set a price for its plots, but it estimates that the land is worth around €120 million.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Eurostone Buys 2 Mixed-Used Buildings in Barcelona

21 May 2018 – Eje Prime

Major operation in the prime area of Barcelona. The Luxembourg-based fund Eurostone, managed by Grupo Mina, has purchased two entire buildings in the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district of the city from a local family office for €50 million. The properties span a combined surface area of more than 12,000 m2.

The larger asset is located on Calle Aribau and measures 7,461 m2. Constructed in 1918, the property is designated for residential use, for living in as well as for tourist rental. In the internal patio, there is also an office building called La Farinera.

Meanwhile, the second building acquired by Eurostone, which has been advised in this operation by the consultancy firm BNP Paribas Real Estate, is located on Calle Tuset. The asset, constructed in 1944, has a surface area of 4,786 m2 and a commercial premise on the ground floor. The rest of the property is made up of homes.

“This operation highlights the interest that the Catalan real estate sector is sparking amongst the funds and other international players, who still see Barcelona as a priority market in which to invest”, says Francisco López, Director of BNP Paribas Real Estate in Cataluña.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Logistics Socimi Tarjar Buys Commercial Plot in Madrid for €1.17M

16 May 2018 – Eje Prime

Tarjar Xairo will add a fifth asset to its portfolio next year. The logistics Socimi has just purchased a plot of buildable land in Madrid for €1.17 million, according to a statement filed by the company with the Alternative Investment Market (MAB).

The investment company is going to build a commercial premise on the site, which is located in the Cerro de las Columnas area of the Madrilenian town of Pozuelo de Alarcón. The building work for the construction of the asset will begin at the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2019. Tarjar will lease out the space once the project has been completed.

For the acquisition of the plot, the Socimi has signed a mortgage loan with CaixaBank amounting to €2.5 million. The company has used two of its existing industrial warehouses as collateral, located in Coslada (Madrid) at numbers 31 and 33 Calle Fuentemar. Tarjar is the landlord of the Catalan pharmaceutical giant Grifols in the first of those properties.

The loan will be repaid over 144 monthly instalments between now and 2032 and will have a fixed annual interest rate of 1.5% plus 12-month Euribor. The plot in Pozuelo will be added to the existing real estate portfolio, which already contains four industrial warehouses. Besides the two properties in Coslada, Tarjar owns a third logistics space in Madrid, at number 75 Calle Hierro. Moreover, beyond the Spanish capital, the Socimi owns a fourth asset on the Ribarroja del Turia industrial estate, in the province of Valencia.

In total, the four properties span a constructed surface area of around 25,000 m2 and a leasable surface area, primarily for industrial and office use, of 22,000 m2.

50% of Tarjar is currently under the control of María del Carmen Escribano Sánchez-Beato, who owns 86,692 shares in the Socimi. After her, the other two main shareholders are Juan Hernández Villa, who owns 12.7% of the Socimi, and Francisco Javier Echenique Gordillo, who owns 7.6%. Hernández Villa also manages the Socimi’s rentals through his company Arquibuba.

First anniversary on the MAB 

Tarjar Xairo started to operate as a listed company over a year ago now. The logistics Socimi rang the bell of the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) on 20 February 2017 with a company valuation of €9.2 million. The company, which thereby became the 30th Socimi to debut on the stock market, set an initial share price of €53.12.

Now, with twenty more Socimis trading on the MAB (50 in total), Tarjar is betting on buildable land for commercial use, which it hopes will allow it to continue growing. In 2017, the Socimi registered a profit of €118,710, with revenues of €377,509, according to the company’s public records (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by J. Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Trinitario Casanova Sells Large Plot In North Madrid To Gestilar-Morgan

13 November 2017 – El Confidencial

It has taken Trinitario Casanova more than a year to make his move since he became a landowner in Valdebebas, one of the main areas of development in the north of Madrid. But in the end, he has acted and he has done so with one of the new stars in the market, the joint venture created by Gestilar and Morgan Stanley. The parties are currently finalising an agreement, which, if nothing goes wrong, will be signed this week and which will result in the sale of all Casanova’s residential plots.

It was in the spring of 2016 when the owner of the Baraka Group purchased Parque Empresarial El Olivar, a company owned by the Cort Lagos family. With it, he acquired 114,000 m2 of land, spread over eight residential plots, plus one for industrial and commercial use that by itself measured 46,000 m2.

Since then, Casanova has been focused on removing the company from the bankruptcy situation that it fell into four years ago and which had reached the liquidation phase when Baraka appeared. This objective was achieved on 27 September, when the Mercantile Court number 5 of Madrid resolved “to declare the reactivation of the dissolved company Parque Empresarial del Olivar”, according to the ruling to which El Confidencial has had access.

With this sentence in his hand, Trinitario has been able to sit down and negotiate, with ease, to sell the three residential plots that he still owns in Valdebebas, given that the other five were auctioned off before Baraka managed to purchase Parque Empresarial and were pre-awarded to Grupo Amenábar and Premier. The party chosen by the businessman as the new owner of his land is the joint venture that Gestilar and Morgan Stanley have created.

The property developer owned by the García-Valcárcel family has been analysing these plots in Valdebebas for a while, and other giants, such as Castlelake, the fund behind Aedas Homes, had also expressed their interest in the past. The negotiations accelerated following Parque Empresarial’s exit from bankruptcy and last week, they managed to reach the point of agreement, according to the sources consulted.

As El Confidencial revealed, Gestilar and Morgan Stanley have constituted a joint venture, which they plan to endow with €100 million, whose vocation is to acquire plots of land over the next four or five years. They plan to build around 1,000 new homes thereon, a figure that equals the entire portfolio that Gestilar currently has under development.

An important portion of this plan may be achieved only with the success of the operation in Valdebebas, one of the most sought-after areas in Madrid, and therefore in all of Spain, but also one of the areas most affected by legal uncertainty. For years now, the courts have been ruling against the way in which this development has been carried out, which has forced licence granting processes to be suspended on several occasions.

Trinitario Casanova, who took on the debt of Parque Empresarial when he acquired the entity, will continue to be present in the development, as he will retain control of the 46,000 m2 industrial and commercial plot, where he wants to boost the activity of his construction company Trabis, an aim that is always behind the real estate movements of the Baraka Group.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Casanova Completes Lightning Operation On Calle Preciados

3 March 2017 – Cinco Días

Trinitario Casanova has completed his second lightning operation in Madrid. (…). On Wednesday, the Murcian businessman formalised the purchase of a building on Madrid’s Calle Preciados, the most expensive street for retail premises in the city, and immediately sold it to the Texan fund Hines.

The property acquired on c/Preciados by the owner of the Baraka Group has a surface area of almost 1,700 m2, spread over a basement floor, ground floor and four above ground floors. The idea is that the whole building will be renovated for commercial use and converted into a flagship store for a major brand.

This is the same approach to a deal that Casanova adopted when he purchased a Bankia branch on Gran Vía in Madrid last year. In that case, the end buyer was also Hines, after the hamburger chain Five Guys confirmed that it would lease the space. In exchange, Casanova obtained a fast profit.

It also resembles the major operation that the businessman has signed in Madrid recently – the purchase of Edificio España from the Chinese group Dalian Wanda. That transaction, amounting to €272 million, has not been closed yet, but the hotel chain Riu has confirmed its participation as a partner investor and brand, as well as the manager of the future hotel. Nevertheless, in September, the Murcian businessman admitted that he still needed to find €200 million to finance the renovation work (…).

In the case of the property at number 13, Calle Preciados, Casanova has purchased it from several families, in an operation advised by Pérez-Llorca and Cushman & Wakefield. The parties have not revealed the consideration paid.

Cortefiel has decided to close the store of its Springfield brand, which occupied this building until now. The property also currently houses a local fashion company called Símbolo.

Original story: Cinco Días (by A.S.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hines Finalises Purchase Of Popular’s HQ In Barcelona

3 February 2017 – Expansión

Banco Popular’s headquarters on Paseo de Gràcia in Barcelona is about to change hands, in one of the first major operations of the year in the real estate sector in the Catalan capital.

The US company Hines is holding advanced negotiations to acquire the building, in a process that has been well attended by other players in the sector. The contract between the current owner and Hines will be signed within the next few days. The 6-storey property, which has a surface area of 4,000 m2, was constructed at the beginning of the 1960s and is home to Banco Popular’s headquarters in the city, as well as to its regional head office.

According to sources in the sector, the real estate company Hines – which was one of the finalists in the bid for Edificio España in Madrid – will pay around €80 million for Popular’s headquarters in Barcelona.

The building, located at number 11 on Paseo de Gràcia, next to the Barcelona Stock Exchange, came onto the market months ago, during one of the most tumultuous years in the bank’s history, which also coincided with the reactivation of the real estate sector, especially the in the major cities, such as Madrid and Barcelona.

Commercial use

According to various sources, Hines plans to convert the bank’s Barcelona headquarters into a building that can be used for commercial purposes. Its location, on Paseo de Gràcia and very close to Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, makes it ideal for conversion into a flagship megastore for a major fashion brand. In fact, the Swedish fashion chain H&M will open one of its largest stores in the world in the Generali Building today, which is on the other side of Gran Via, and just opposite, is one of the largest Zara stores in Spain. Moreover, at the intersection of Paseo de Gràcia and Gran Via, the Japanese brand Uniqlo is continuing work to open a huge store, its first in the Spanish market.

The possibility of converting Popular’s headquarters into a hotel has been ruled out following the approval of the tourist accommodation plan by the Town Hall of Barcelona – preceded by a long moratorium -, which prevents the construction of new hotel establishments in the centre of the city.

Some sources indicate that Popular has a year to vacate its current headquarters. The bank could move its main office in Barcelona to another site on the same street, on the corner with Calle Aragón, to the lower floors of the building where Banco Pastor used to house its regional head office in Cataluña.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz and J. Orihuel)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Quonia Buys Hotel Internacional In Barcelona For €11.25M

19 July 2016 – La Vanguardia

(…). The Catalan Socimi Quonia, which debuted on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) on Monday, has acquired Hotel Internacional, located on Las Ramblas, 78-80, in Barcelona, for €11.25 million from the hotel group Husa, owned by the businessman Joan Gaspart.

In a statement, Quonia reported that the price includes the purchase of the property and its operating licence, and that the transaction has been advised by the firm Laborde Marcet. This hotel has a leasable surface area of 1,915 sqm; its upper floors are leased for hotel use, whilst its ground floor houses retail premises. The property was one of Husa’s last real estate assets in Barcelona, which is undergoing a major restructuring after emerging from complex bankruptcy proceedings.

Quonia debuted on the MAB on Monday at a price of €1.65 per share, which represents a market capitalisation for the company of €41.97 million. The Socimi holds a portfolio comprising properties leased for residential and commercial use located in Barcelona, Sevilla and Langreo (Asturias), with a total approximate gross leasable area (GLA) of 12,197 sqm, excluding one ground-level car park with 50 spaces and another underground car park with 93 spaces. (…).

Original story: La Vanguardia

Translation: Carmel Drake