29 May 2019 – Eje Prime
The insurance company AXA is holding negotiations with the construction company ACS to build two office buildings on plots that it owns on Paseo de la Dirección in Madrid.
The towers would be similar in height to the residential skyscrapers that Stoneweg is planning to build on the same street. They would include restaurants and shops, which would serve to regenerate activity in the Tetuán neighbourhood.
Original story: Eje Prime
Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake
10 July 2018 – Eje Prime
Grupo Ortiz has finalised the placement of bonds worth €50 million with the aim of replacing a previous issue that is due to expire next year. Thanks to this operation, the company will reduce the cost of its debt and extend its maturity period.
The new bonds, subscribed by qualifying investors, are being launched over five years, in such a way that they will expire in 2023. The interest rate on the bonds is 5.25%. The new securities replace those issued for the same total amount in 2014, which are due to expire in 2019 and which generate a cost of the company of 7% per annum.
The new bonds, just like their predecessors, will be admitted for trading on the Alternative Fixed Income Market (MARF). Grupo Ortiz was the third company to launch debt securities on that market.
In 2017, Grupo Ortiz completed a portfolio of building work pending execution worth €6 billion, up by 45% compared to the previous year, boosted by the expansion of its international business, primarily in Latin America. More than two-thirds of the company’s business is generated overseas.
Original story: Eje Prime
Translation: Carmel Drake
26 June 2018 – Eje Prime
Habitat is continuing to compose its governing body. The real estate company, which has been owned by Bain Capital since last year, has hired Juan María Nin (pictured below) as the new President of the company. The director is already a member of the Boards of Directors of Azora, Société Générale and Azvi.
Nin is joining the Catalan property developer at a time when the management team is being rebuilt by the US fund, which recently hired José Carlos Saz, formerly of Neinor Homes, as its new CEO.
The executive, who holds a degree in Law and Economics from the University of Deusto and a Masters in Law and Political Science from the London School of Economics, has enjoyed an outstanding career in the Spanish business world. Nin has held positions of responsibility at several banks including Santander, Sabadell and CaixaBank (…).
Habitat, which was acquired by Bain in December last year for €220 million, currently has a portfolio of projects underway in Spain, with more than 1,000 new homes being marketed in Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga, Sevilla, Córdoba, Valencia and Las Palmas de Gran Canarias. Of those, the real estate company has 700 homes under construction and expects to hand over more than 550 homes in the next twelve months.
Original story: Eje Prime
Translation: Carmel Drake
11 June 2018 – Expansión
The Baraka Group, controlled by the businessman Trinitario Casanova, has closed an agreement to sell one of the logistics assets owned by its construction company Trabis.
Specifically, Baraka has sold a logistics warehouse, called Trabis II, located in the Murcian town of Yecla, the region where Casanova’s companies are headquartered. The property, which has a constructed surface area of 14,000 m2, has been sold for €14 million through a sale and leaseback contract.
“The advantage is that the buyer is guaranteed an asset in which the tenant will continue to undertake its activity”, explained Pablo Carvajal, Director of Capital Markets at Catella, the consultancy firm that has advised the new owner in the transaction.
The buyer is the French fund manager Corum Asset Management. Created in 2011 and with offices in Paris and Amsterdam, the firm set itself the objective last year of investing €500 million in real estate assets across Europe, with a special focus on Spain. For its investments, whose yields exceed 6%, Corum works with two funds Corum Origin and Corum XL, the latter was launched last year.
This is not the first time that Baraka and Corum have closed an operation together. In July 2016, the French firm paid more than €24.8 million for another logistics building also leased to Trabis.
Corum is one of the international investors that has opted to purchase logistics assets in Spain, a booming market due to its high returns and the increase in the e-commerce business. “The logistics investment market is proving attractive for domestic and international investors alike and increasingly more are investing in this type of asset. Between January and May, €250 million has been invested in these types of properties”, say sources at Catella.
At the overall level, investment during the first half of the year is expected to reach €5 billion. “During 2018, €3 billion has been invested in tertiary (non-residential) assets. Taking into account certain transactions pending completion, we expect to see investment of close to €5 billion during the first half of the year, around €1 billion less than during the same period in 2017”, he predicts.
Casanova
The divestment of this logistics warehouse comes just weeks after Trinitario Casanova entered the Madrid Nuevo Norte real estate project (known as Operación Chamartín). The businessman has committed to pay €400 million to the initial owners for the rights to 1.2 million m2 of land (now in the hands of the Ministry of Development) where the company DCN, controlled by BBVA and SanJosé, is planning to build an urban development with more than 10,500 homes.
In addition, Casanova is working on the marketing of the future shopping arcade in Edificio España, the property that he purchased from Wanda for €172 million to immediately sell it on to the RIU hotel group.
Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)
Translation: Carmel Drake
20 March 2018 – Inmodiario
Viqueira has recently acquired a plot for the construction of 130 homes in PERI IV-09, known as “Baixada de San Roque”. The surface area of the plot measures 1,508 m2 and a 10-storey tower, comprising 2-, 3- and 4-bedroom homes, is going to be built on the site.
Specifically, the plot is located on Rúa Morcego, in a new urbanisation that has been completed and approved by the Town Hall, and which has green space alongside it.
This new acquisition by the company forms part of its strategic plan for 2015-2020 through which Viqueira is planning a number of investments in Galicia and the Canary Islands, and which represents the start of the most important residential real estate project in Vigo.
It is not the first time that Viqueira has carried out a residential project in the San Roque area, in fact, the Vigo-based construction company has built more than 400 homes in the region, the most recent and iconic of which was the “Plaza de las Palmeras” project, undertaken by the company in the 1990s.
The company is already working on the building plans and hopes to be in possession of the construction licence by the end of the summer when it expects to start marketing the development (…).
Original story: Inmodiario
Translation: Carmel Drake
15 March 2018 – Expansión
On 23 March, the FC Barcelona midfielder Andrés Iniesta is going to formalise the purchase of 30,642 m2 of land in Mataró (Barcelona) for €11.5 million. The operation is going to be carried out through the company Maresyterey. It is a surface area that is going to be allocated to housing (70%) and to companies, offices and businesses (30%). The vendor is the company Porta Laietana, which was jointly owned in equal parts by the Town Hall of Mataró – which has recorded a gain of €5.1 million – and the Catalan construction company Copcisa, owned by Eloi Carbonell.
Original story: Expansión
Translation: Carmel Drake
20 November 2017 – Eje Prime
Grupo Villar Mir has listened to its partners and the Town Hall, and is going to redesign Torre Caleido, the fifth tower in Madrid. The skyscraper, which is going to be built next to the Cuatro Torres, will be adapted to the requests of Megaworld Corporation, its Philippine partner, and the local government led by Manuela Carmena. Amongst other features, the project is now going to include a supermarket and a cinema, as well as more lifts than initially planned, as requested by the Town Hall.
This redesign of the building will result in a delay in the award of the construction contract, which is now expected to take place during the final month of the year. Nevertheless, OHL, the construction company that forms part of Grupo Villar Mir, is currently positioned as the favourite to build the skyscraper, since to date, it has carried out the demolition and the work to prepare the land, which spans a surface area of 33,326 m2, according to El Economista.
An investment of approximately €160 million is estimated for the main construction work to build the skyscraper, out of a total projected budget of €300 million. Moreover, Torre Caleido already knows who its most important tenants are going to be, namely: IE and Quirón. The business school has acquired 50,000 m2 of the skyscraper in its move to become the first high-rise campus in Spain, whilst the healthcare group will turn its section of the building into a state-of-the-art medical centre.
On the outside, Villar Mir has redesigned the plans to include a shopping area, which will contain a supermarket and two cinema screens, an express wish of Megaworld, the company that controls 49% of the project’s capital. The tower will have 36 storeys as well as a four-floor base, which will be 20m tall.
Original story: Eje Prime
Translation: Carmel Drake
6 June 2017 – Eje Prime
The office market is alive and kicking in Barcelona. The property developer and construction company Núñez y Navarro has leased the La Rotonda building to the US sportswear group Nike, where it will open its headquarters in Barcelona. The operation has been brokered by CBRE.
The building, located at number 51 on Paseo San Gervasio, has a surface area of 4,300 m2. The US firm is following in the footsteps of other large groups with its decision to settle in the centre of the city, as it seeks to be closer to consumers and offer a better service. For more than ten years, Nike’s offices have been located on the Mas Blau industrial estate in El Prat de Llobregat.
The sports brand will now open its office in the modernist building, which dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. The property was recently renovated and already houses the headquarters of Accenture.
“With this move, Nike is moving from more traditional offices on the outskirts of the Catalan capital to a ground-breaking new office in one of the best areas of Barcelona” – explains Sandra Muñoz, from CBRE – “This move echoes a global trend, given that increasingly more companies are using their corporate headquarters to strengthen their brand image, as well as a differentiating element when it comes to attracting and retaining talent”.
Original story: Eje Prime
Translation: Carmel Drake
5 June 2017 – La Vanguardia
The luxury housing company Caledonian is planning to expand its activity into the hotel sector, with the construction of a vacation complex on the Costa del Sol, according to comments made to EFE by the President of the company, Enrique López Granados.
The complex will be located “between Algeciras and Marbella”, although López Granados chose not to specify the exact location because the project is still in the negotiation phase.
López Granados, who recently unveiled a luxury housing development in Pozuelo (Madrid), also confirmed that Caledonian has purchased the Javier Ferrero building in Madrid for €9 million.
The building will be refurbished and then the real estate company is expected to generate between €25 million and €30 million from the sale of the homes.
Caledonian is also interested in constructing social housing properties in Madrid, although the property developer has not found an appropriate location for that yet.
“The aim is to construct around 2,000 homes to be sold for around €2,000/m2”, explained López Granados.
The President of Caledonian said that the yield that the real estate company obtains from its activities is “small”, close to 15%, given that the homes that it sells “are expensive because it costs a lot to build them”.
The 21 homes that Caledonian has constructed in Pozuelo and that López Granados unveiled last week cost between €500,000, for the cheapest, and €1.5 million, for the most expensive.
“I also think that this is a great time for the luxury sector, given that people are starting to buy again”, said López Granados.
The Director also said that Caledonian would like to expand into other geographical areas, such as Barcelona. Nevertheless, he clarified that the real estate company has not yet found “any appropriate plots of land to be able to build on”.
“If we could find appropriate plots of land, we would not have any problem starting projects in other places”, he said.
Nevertheless, López Granados said that constructing in other areas “requires additional effort”, and for that reason, he prefers “places that he already knows such as the Costa del Sol and Madrid”.
Caledonian is a property developer and construction company that specialises in the luxury property sector. It has constructed projects in locations such as Somosaguas (Madrid), Aravaca (Madrid) and Ibiza.
Original story: La Vanguardia
Translation: Carmel Drake
1 June 2017 – Idealista
The Salazar family, the former owner of SOS Cuétara, has just divested the last jewel in its hotel crown in Madrid: it has sold the Gran Hotel Velázquez for €58 million.
The establishment has 142 rooms, is located on the capital’s Golden Mile and its new owner is the Didra Group, famous for constructing residential developments in luxury urbanisations in Madrid. Didra plans to close the hotel in July for 18 months to undertake a comprehensive refurbishment.
The Salazar family, through Corporación Hispana Hotelera, owned four hotels in the capital in its heyday. However, it started to sell off its properties three years ago to finance the fine imposed on it by the courts for the embezzlements at SOS Cuétara, which went on for 10 years.
In this way, the family sold the Ada Palace, an establishment located on Madrid’s Gran Vía, close to Puerta del Sol, to an Asian investment group, for €35 million. In addition, it sold the María Elena Palace Hotel, which is also located in the heart of the capital.
The latest hotel to have been sold has been the Gran Hotel Velázquez. Last year, the Salazar family was about to close the deal with the Didra Group, but it was then thwarted because of the buyer’s lack of liquidity and because the courts suspended the operation. Nevertheless, the family has now received the green light to close the sale and so has just one hotel establishment left in its portfolio: the Hotel Osuna, located on the outskirts of the capital, near the airport.
This agreement is expected to be made public within the next few days.
Original story: Idealista
Translation: Carmel Drake
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