Tag: Conforama

Marathon Puts the Bahía Azul Shopping Centre in Málaga up for Sale for c. €30M

11 April 2019 – Idealista

The US fund Marathon has put the Bahía Azul shopping centre in Málaga up for sale for an asking price of between €25 million and €30 million.

Marathon has owned the centre since 2016, when it acquired it for €18.5 million, and has appointed Savills-Aguirre Newman to manage the sale, which will begin after Easter.

Bahía Azul, which was inaugurated in November 2008, has a surface area of 13,827 m2, divided into four retail spaces, plus a 9,445 m2 underground parking lot. It is located opposite Guadalmar in the same complex as Ikea, and is home to high-profile brands including Worten, Conforama, Schmidt, Prenatal, McDonald’s, Visionlab, Carrión and Maisons du Monde.

Marathon Asset Management has headquarters in New York, London and Singapore. It is one of the minority shareholders of the property developer Vía Célere, which is controlled (75%) by Värde.

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Conforama to Build a 60,000 m2 Logistics Centre in Valencia

16 January 2019 -Eje Prime

A new operation in the Valencian logistics sector. The furniture and household good distribution company Conforama is going to build a 60,000 m2 logistics centre on the Carrasses Industrial Estate in the Valencian municipality of Llíria, according to Efe.

The asset is going to be located on a plot measuring 80,000 m2, which will also include an administrative building. Moreover, with this investment and according to the town hall of the municipality, 30% of the industrial estate’s surface area will be occupied within three years.

This operation forms part of the French company’s expansion strategy. It owns assets located across the Iberian Peninsula, as well as in Italy, Croatia, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Serbia. In Spain, it has 37 stores and it plans to grow that figure to 50 over the coming years.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Bogaris Invests €25M in its New Shopping Centre in León

31 October 2018 – Eje Prime

Bogaris is on a roll in Spain following the opening of the Torrecárdenas shopping centre last week. The company, which specialises in the development of large commercial, logistics and industrial spaces, has invested €25 million in the development of its new shopping centre in León, according to comments made by the company’s Director General, Javier Marín, to Eje Prime.

The plot on which the Reino de León shopping centre is going to be located spans a total surface area of 54,000 m2. Of that space, Bogaris’s project will occupy a gross leasable area (GLA) of 26,000 m2, and tenants have already been identified for more than half: Leroy Merlín will occupy 10,000 m2 and Decathlon is going to lease another 4,000 m2.

The Reino de León shopping centre will also have other operators, such as Conforama, McDonald’s and Kiwoko. “We still need to find a tenant for an 800 m2 unit that we want to dedicate to the food sector”, said Marín. Nevertheless, the company is determined to start work on the construction of the complex between the end of this year and the beginning of 2019.

Bogaris also has another project underway that it is planning to start work on at the same time as Reino de León. That is a shopping centre in Lisbon, located on a plot with a buildable surface area of 23,000 m2 and around 45,000 m2 of land. In that case, the company has already confirmed Leroy Merlin, Conforama and the hypermarket chain Continente Modelo as tenants.

Currently, the group is working on other new projects, in the marketing and urban development phases, in Cataluña, Levante, Andalucía and Castilla y León. (…).

For the time being, the company wants to consolidate its presence in the Iberian Peninsula, although it does not rule out expanding overseas at some point (…).

With more than twenty years of experience, the group has its headquarters in Andalucía, the region where it began its activity, firstly by investing in the industrial sector and then in supermarkets (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by B. Seijo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Ores Socimi Acquires 3 Commercial Assets for €19.7M

25 October 2018 – Idealista

Ores Socimi has circumvented some of the operations that it was studying and has leapt into action. The Socimi owned by Bankinter and the Portuguese real estate company Sonae Sierra has acquired three commercial assets, occupied by the supermarkets Mercadona and Día, and the home decor store Conforama, for €19.7 million. The purchases have been carried out in Madrid and Santander.

In Madrid, Ores has purchased an asset occupied by Mercadona, located in the town of Humanes, which has a retail surface area of 2,334 m2. That transaction was carried out for €4.1 million.

Ores has also purchased a supermarket in Getafe, which is leased to and operated by the company Día. That asset has a total surface area of 1,956 m2 and the amount of the operation was €3 million. In Santander, meanwhile, the company has invested €12.6 million in an asset operated by Conforama and with a surface area of 8,000 m2.

These acquisitions form part of a new period of purchases by Ores, which has set itself the objective of investing €30 million, as revealed by Idealista News.

In this way, Ores is continuing to grow its portfolio, which comprises 30 assets and has a combined market value of more than €328 million and a gross annual income of €19.4 million.

Ores is aimed at private banking clients. Although its portfolio of assets is small, for the time being, the Socimi made its debut on the stock market with the objective of investing €400 million in retail premises on high streets, as well as supermarkets, retail parks (up by 20,000 m2), bank branches and singular assets with long-lasting leases and solvent tenants.

Bankinter and Sonae Sierra launched their real estate vehicle in record time. On 15 December last year, the two groups constituted the company and, within just two months, they carried out the process to create the vehicle, raised sufficient capital to get it going and completed its stock market debut.

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lar Spends €6M on Renovation of Megapark Barakaldo Shopping Centre

10 April 2018 – Eje Prime

Lar is giving one of its assets a makeover. The Socimi owned by the Lar España group has started work on the complete renovation of the Megapark Barakaldo shopping centre, for the first time since its construction in 2004, which will involve an investment of €6 million, according to a statement issued by the group.

The shopping centre, which is owned by Lar España Real Estate Socimi, has been managed by Neinver since 2016. Neinver, which is directing the renovation work, is one of the leaders in the development and management of outlet centres in Spain and the second largest operator in Europe.

The renovation of Megapark is going to be carried out in two phases. Firstly, work will be undertaken in the retail space; this has already begun, without affecting the daily activity of the centre, and is due to be completed in November 2018. Subsequently, work will begin on the leisure area to modernise and unify its image with the rest of the park.

“During this first phase, the renovation of Megapark Barakaldo’s retail area will be reflected primarily in a more current image, which is going to be accompanied by the renovation of all of the façades, outdoor spaces and common areas”, explain sources at the group. For this, an urbanisation plan has been developed, which includes introducing urban design furniture and children’s areas.

The general remodelling of the centre is also being accompanied by the renovation of some of the retail stores such as those of Mediamarkt, Kiabi, Merkal and Forum, as well as the expansion of the Conforama store by 1,200 m2 to reach 6,200 m2.

Megapark Barakaldo is located fifteen minutes from the centre of Bilbao and is the only retail and leisure area of its kind in a 400 km radius. In 2017, it received more than 10 million visitors and it has a surface area of 128,000 m2.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lar España Buys Rivas Futura Shopping Centre for €62M

6 February 2018 – Expansión

The Socimi in which Pimco holds a stake has purchased the Rivas Futura shopping complex, in the Madrilenian town of the same name, for €62 million.

Lar España has completed its first investment of 2018. The Socimi, whose largest shareholder is the fund manager Pimco, has completed the purchase of the Rivas Futura shopping complex, located in the Madrilenian town of Rivas.

Inaugurated in 2016, this complex was promoted by the real estate firm Avantis, and became a reference in Madrid, with a surface area spanning more than 55,000 m2 and first-class tenants such as Media Markt, Conforama and Toys R Us. Next to the retail park, the same real estate firm constructed a large office complex and a shopping centre called H2Ocio. Recently, that shopping centre also changed hands, with the manager CBRE Global Investors acquiring 70% of the property.

In 2008, Avantis’ liquidity problems meant that it had to find a new owner for the complex. The real estate subsidiary of Axa spent €81 million to buy the centre at that time. Years later, the fund Lone Star was awarded the park as part of Project Octopus, formed by loans from the German bank Eurohypo.

Now, the Socimi managed by the real estate group Lar has become its new owner, after paying €61.6 million to the most recent owner: Credit Suisse.

With this new investment, Lar España has become the largest operator of retail parks in Spain, with more than 150,000 m2 in its portfolio. Its flagship assets include the Megapark complex in Barakaldo, where the Socimi owns both the Megapark shopping centre and the factory outlet (acquired for €170 million), as well as the leisure area; that operation was closed at the end of October.

This purchase also represents the first acquisition of a commercial asset by the Socimi in Madrid, where it already owns a luxury housing development, Lagasca 99, as well as two office buildings. At the end of last year, Lar España put its office portfolio, comprising four assets and worth €170 million, up for sale. Since then, it has sold two of the assets, both located in Madrid and both sold to the same buyer: the real estate firm Colonial.

During the first nine months of 2017, Lar España generated profits of €72.2 million, up by 55% compared to a year earlier, after earning €57.2 million, up by 36%.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Barings Acquires 2 Logistics Assets in Madrid for €17.6M

11 December 2017 – Eje Prime

Barings Real Estate is closing its ambitious expansion plan for Spain in 2017. Just weeks after it purchased a 29,000 m2 logistics centre in Zaragoza, the international manager has acquired two assets in Majadahonda (Madrid) for €17.6 million; the same amount it spent on the operation in the Aragonese capital.

The fund has acquired a warehouse and a gas station, which span a combined land area of 10,900 m2. The company has also announced that it will lease the centre to the multinational furniture retailer Conforama under a ten-year contract.

With this new acquisition, Barings has accumulated a portfolio of non-residential assets in Spain worth almost €100 million during 2017. In April, the manager purchased a logistics space in Madrid measuring 56,000 m2 for €35 million and in July it bought an asset measuring 1,600 m2 for €21.6 million. In addition to the two centres it acquired in the last month, the company has now spent €90 million in Spain.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Meridia Capital Buys 4 RE Assets For €20M

12 January 2017 – Inmodiario

Yesterday, Meridia Capital Partners announced the purchase of a portfolio of four assets with a combined surface area of 24,063 m2 – comprising one logistics platform and three retail units – located primarily in Madrid. All of the properties have been acquired by the fund Meridia II for a price of approximately €20 million.

The logistics platform has a gross leasable area (GLA) of 16,385 m2 and is located in one of Madrid’s main logistics areas (CLA, Getafe), which is home to several high profile logistics centres and companies (for example DHL, Decathlon, Flex, Conforama).

The three retail units have a combined GLA of 7,678 m2 and are leased to well known food retailers such as Mercadona – the market leader in Spain – and Día – which is the third largest player in its sector.

Launched in 2014, Meridia II is a €150 million real estate fund specialising in the logistics, retail and office sectors in Spain. Following this latest deal, the fund has now invested almost all (94%) of its available capital.

Juan Barba, Partner and Managing Director of Real Estate at Meridia Capital, said “This transaction is another example of the good opportunities for adding value that are currently available in the Spanish market. The presence of high profile tenants in the area of the recently acquired platform is proof of its excellent location. This deal strengthens our exposure to the Spanish retail/logistics sectors and complements our previous acquisitions, including a warehouse in Valencia, as well as the Consum and Aecus portfolios. Through this transaction, we incorporate the seventh Mercadona unit into our portfolio, whereby consolidating our relationship with the leading food retailer in Spain”.

In this deal, Meridia Capital was advised by Aguirre Newman and Cuatrecasas, whilst the vendor was advised by CBRE:

Original story: Inmodiario

Translation: Carmel Drake

Belgian Fund Ascencio Finalises Purchase Of Parque Abadía

8 November 2016 – Expansión

The Spanish real estate market is starting to welcome new players. After two years during which opportunistic funds and Spanish Socimis have been responsible for the lion’s share of investment operations, 2016 has seen several institutional investors and companies enter the market.

Such is the case of Ascencio. The listed Belgian real estate company (SIR, according to its French acronym), which specialises in well-located commercial assets with first-rate tenants, has decided to place its focus on Spain.

After years focusing on the Belgian market (where 62% of its assets are located) and France (which accounts for 33% of its portfolio), Ascencio arrived in Spain in March with the purchase of three premises in Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona, leased to the chain Worten, owned by the Sonae group. In this first operation, Ascencio spent €27.3 million, a figure that it is going to almost triple with its second transaction in Spain, given that the Belgian firm is the favourite to buy the Parque Abadía retail complex in Toledo.

Parque Abadía, which has a surface area of 64,000 m2, is the most important retail establishment in the province. With a retail surface area covering more than 54,000 m2, its main tenants include Alcampo, Decathlon, Media Markt, C&A, Conforama, Kiabi, Merkal and Norauto. Leroy Merlin also operates and owns a store in the complex, which has a surface area of more than 9,000 m2.

Inaugurated in November 2011, the retail complex has 2,680 parking spaces. Last year, Parque Abadía received more than six million visitors, and that figure is expected to be even higher in 2016.

Several investment funds and Socimis have expressed their interest in the property. Nevertheless, Ascencio’s offer, amounting to €80 million, is the best positioned, say sources close to the process.

The vendor is the British fund Rockspring, which has been focusing its investments in Spain on logistics centres in recent months, including the purchase of assets as well as the development of new establishments.

The sale of Parque Abadía is expected to be closed before the end of the year, according to sources in the market. Ascencio currently has funds amounting to €600 million to invest in the three European markets in which it has a presence, and has named Spain as its primary focus.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake