Tag: coworking

Agartha Real Estate Socimi to Debut on the Euronext Access in July

4 June 2019 – Eje Prime

Agartha Real Estate Socimi is getting ready to make its debut on the Euronext Access platform in July, with an estimated valuation of €28 million.

The co-working and co-living specialist will make its debut with a portfolio of three flexible office spaces in Madrid, located on Calle Piamonte, 23, Calle Serrano Anguita, 13 and Calle Javier Ferrero, 10.

The company is owned by the Venezuelan businessman Miguel Ángel Capriles, a relative of the opposition leader Henrique Capriles and director of Abanca.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Utopicus to Open 6 New Coworking Centres by 2020

14 March 2019 – Expansión

Utopicus is planning to add six new centres to its portfolio in Madrid and Barcelona over the next year taking the total number of centres to 13, which will together span a surface area of 36,000 m2.

On Monday, the coworking company controlled by Colonial will open its large, long-awaited office on Gran Vía 4, where it will occupy the entire building (spanning 5,000 m2 in total).

The average cost of the firm’s workspaces ranges between €300 and €400 per month. The company expects to welcome 6,000 coworkers in 2020.

New office openings

In addition to Gran Vía, over the coming months, Utopicus plans to open centres in Parc Glories and Gal la Placidia, in Barcelona and on Paseo de la Castellana 163, Jose Abascal 56 and Paseo de la Habana, in Madrid.

According to Rafa De Ramón, CEO of Utopicus, coworking is a phenomenon on the rise. Currently, coworking spaces span 150,400 m2 in Barcelona and Madrid, which accounts for between 0.5% and 1% of the total office market. That figure is expected to grow by between 5% and 10% over the next few years.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Merlin to Add 13,000 m2 of Coworking Space in Madrid & Barcelona by 2020

28 February 2019 – Idealista

Merlin Properties is expanding in the coworking sector, where it operates under the Loom brand. The Socimi led by Ismael Clemente currently has three shared offices in Madrid, spanning 3,500 m2 in total, and it is planning to open its next space, spanning 1,200 m2 on Calle Eucalipto, 25, also in the Spanish capital, in June.

The listed company also intends to open 1,600 m2 of coworking space in Torre Glóries, the office block that it owns in Barcelona, where its tenants will work alongside several high-profile operators, such as Facebook, Dynatrace and Oracle.

In September, Merlin is going to open 2,000 m2 of coworking space in the Salamanca neighbourhood of Madrid and before the end of the year, it will add 1,500 m2 of shared office space in WTC Alameda in Barcelona.

In 2020, the Socimi is also planning to open 1,100 m2 of shared work space in Torre Chamartín in Madrid and another 2,000 m2 in the 22@ district of Barcelona.

Merlin owns 31% of Loom House, which is managed by the siblings, Paula and José Almansa.

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja)

Summary translation by: Carmel Drake

Busining Leases 4,900 m2 in one of the Kio Towers to Open a Coworking

20 February 2019 – Eje Prime

Busining is going to create a new business centre in Torre Realia The Icon, one of the former Kio Towers in Madrid. The company, which specialises in coworking spaces, has leased 4,900 m2 of space from Realia, the owner of the property. The space is distributed over five floors in the iconic building located at number 216 Paseo de la Castellana where it is going to open offices and meeting rooms. The operation has been advised by Cushman&Wakefield.

The tower, known as The Icon, is one of the most iconic buildings in the Spanish capital and is considered to be the first skyscraper in the world to be built at a sloping angle. Its architect, Philip Johnson, was the first recipient of the Pritzker award.

With this operation, Busininng, which has five business spaces in Madrid, is expanding its offer in the business district of the Spanish capital. “This new operation is another example of the consolidation and growth of the coworking phenomenon in the Spanish market”, said Ignacio Oyarzun, Associate in the Business Space area at Cushman & Wakefield.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Forcadell: 370,000 m2 of Office Space was Leased in Barcelona in 2018

13 February 2019 – Eje Prime

The office market in Barcelona is breaking records. In 2018, 370,000 m2 of space was leased in the city, up by 8.8% compared to 2017. According to the consultancy firm Forcadell, that trend was due to three main factors: interest from international companies, demand from tech companies and the boom in coworking.

Up to 60% of the surface area leased in 2018 corresponded to companies from overseas. According to the report from the consultancy firm, the interest from those companies in Barcelona is attributed to the city’s “entrepreneurial and innovation eco-system”, which is complemented by a commitment to technology, which has attracted companies such as Everis, Oracle and Indra.

In just one year, coworking operators have doubled the amount of space leased in Barcelona, renting out a surface area of 46,700 m2 in 2018. According to this report, the Catalan capital is the European city that has seen its office space increase by the most in percentage terms.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Barcelona Gets Ready for the Residential Equivalent of Coworking: ‘Coliving’

29 January 2019 – Idealista

Whilst last year, coworking was one of the most repeated words, this year, it seems that the residential equivalent is on everyone’s lips, specifically, the new formulae for housing, ‘coliving’. So much so that Barcelona is already preparing to receive the first operators: the Consortium of the Zona Franca, a public entity tasked with the economic revitalisation of the city of Barcelona and its metropolitan area, is already managing licences to open the first coliving centres in the La Marina neighbourhood.

Although the names of the firms that are going to make their debuts in Spain under this model are unknown for the time being, sources in the sector say that they have already started to process the first permits for projects that are in an initial phase. “Just like coworking has become a successful phenomenon for the office market in Spain over the last 2 years, so professionalised coliving wants to follow in its footsteps and try its luck in the residential market”, explain sources at the real estate consultancy firm Forcadell.

“The large international investment funds, in their search for alternative assets that offer higher returns, are studying the Spanish market to implement this model, which has already proved successful in other countries such as the USA, Germany, the UK and Japan (Tokyo)”, say the sources at Forcadell.

With their arrival, these operators will professionalise a common practice in Spain of house sharing, by adding sophisticated aspects more typical of student halls. The coliving projects that have been developed to date comprise complexes with bedrooms and individual bathrooms on the one side and large common areas with movie theatres and games rooms (with ping pong, pool. etc.), libraries, gyms, restaurants and swimming pools, amongst others, on the other side.

According to Toni López, Partner at Forcadell and Director of the company’s real estate area, “the millenials have changed the way of consuming and have championed a change of thinking around property ownership, experience and use; it is logical and inevitable that this trend will expand to the real estate sector”. They are a generation that values experiences and seeks to optimise resources to the max, paying only for the use and experience of an asset, without incurring the cost and hassle involved with its ownership.

Medici and Corestate, the first brave players

Medici and Corestate have become the first groups to look closely at Spain for their new homes under the coliving formula (…). The German company Medici has joined forces with the German fund Corestate to invest more than €1 million in the development of business across all of Europe. In the Spanish market, the company will operate under the Quarters brand and it is already negotiating its first coliving project in Barcelona (…).

Medici already has three coliving buildings in Berlin, with capacity for 45 residents and nine apartments; and two more in the USA, in cities such as New York and Chicago, where the monthly rents range between USD 1,100 (€967) and USD 1,500 (€1,320) (…).

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

WeWork Leases 2 New Office Spaces in Barcelona

4 October 2018 – Eje Prime

The US group, WeWork, is continuing its conquest of Spain and is getting ready to make its mark in the centre of Barcelona. The company, which specialises in flexible office spaces, will add a new complex to its portfolio in the Catalan capital after signing the lease on a building. The Corner, located at number 444 Avenida Diagonal, owned by Emesa. In parallel, the group is finalising the lease of the former headquarters of Banco Popular on Paseo de Gracia, in a property controlled Hines.

The building on La Diagonal is owned by Emesa, the investor group owned by Emilio Cuatrecasas, and used to house the headquarters of the law firm Cuatrecasas. The Corner, located at the intersection of La Diagonal and Paseo de Gracia has a surface area of 3,400 m2 distributed over seven floors (plus a basement), with an average surface area of 400 m2 each.

Emesa has owned the property on La Diagonal since 2017, when it paid €35 million to acquire it. The asset had been on the market since the beginning of the year after Cuatrecasas abandoned its traditional location to move to the 22@ district. Emesa had considered the possibility of leasing the building to several tenants, but in the end, it will be occupied in its entirety by WeWork.

In the meantime, the coworking giant is finalising another major operation. The company is close to signing the lease on the former headquarters of Banco Popular on Paseo de Gracia, a building that has been owned by Hines since March 2017, which paid €90 million for it.

Spaces, one of WeWork’s main rivals, expressed interest in that building in July. Nevertheless, sources at the company indicate that its operation never materialised. The building, located at number 17 Paseo de Gracia, has a surface area for offices and a retail premise, and has just been renovated by its owner.

With these moves, the US giant is taking positions in the centre of Barcelona; until now it had focused its presence on the 22@ district. In May, WeWork leased 4,500 m2 of space in the WIP building, owned by the Swiss fund Stoneweg.

That building is located next to the first complex that the group opened in Spain, in the Luxa building on Calle Tánger of the technological district. In Madrid, WeWork operates a space at number 43 Paseo de la Castellana, another at 77 on the same street, and a third at number 27 Calle Eloy Gonzalo.

Companies specialising in the management of these types of work spaces are revolutionising the office market all over the world. WeWork and Spaces are just two of the largest players on the global stage and both arrived in Spain in 2017.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Pilar Riaño & Jabier Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

C&W: 86 Office Spaces Spanning 101,000 m2 were Leased in 22@ in 2017

2 July 2018 – Mis Oficinas

According to the Marketshot report issued by the real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield, Barcelona’s 22@ district closed 2017 with 86 rental operations, spanning a total surface area of 101,000 m2, which represents the highest figure in the last ten years.

The 22@ district is continuing at record levels for another year. According to the Marketshot report from the real estate consultancy firm Cushman & Wakefield, the district closed 2017 with a total of 86 rental operations, spanning a surface area of 101,000 m2, which represents the highest figure in the last ten years and 34% more than in the previous two years. This leasing figure accounted for 30% of the total office space leased in Barcelona and was led by pre-lease operations, such as the case of Amazon in the Luxa Silver building (10,241 m2), Activision (King) in Ciutat de Granada 150 (8,837 m2), Hewlett-Packard in the building located on c/Tanger 62 (8,132 m2) and WeWork in the Luxa Gold building (6,572 m2).

Potential tenants in the district are mainly looking for sustainable, high-quality spaces. In this sense, 78% of the surface area leased belongs to buildings with A or B+ ratings. The district had only 60,000 m2 of space available at the end of the first quarter of 2018, which represented a 15% decrease in the available surface area in one year and an availability rate of 7%. If we take into account high-quality buildings only (those with A and B+ ratings), the percentage of available space in the 22@ district decreases to 5.7%. Leasing levels recorded at the moment and forecast for the next few months support the development of new properties.

The 22@ district currently has 129,000 m2 of space under construction, scheduled to be handed over between the second half of 2018 and 2019. The potential space for offices in the district amounts to more than 800,000 m2, of which 350,000 m2 is located on finalist land.

Investor interest in the district broke all records in 2017. In terms of investment volumes, the 22@ district received total investment of €161 million, which tripled the €51 million recorded in 2016. In square metres, the investment volume amounted to 173,000 m2, well above the figure at the end of 2016, which amounted to 33,000 m2.

New construction in the area has reactivated in recent months, due to the type of demand and, to a large extent, the growth in rents. On the basis that this trend is going to continue, there will be an impact on capital markets, where we will start seeing operations again soon.

Flexible and coworking spaces are enjoying an unprecedented boom in Barcelona at the moment. The rise in coworking spaces in the city is clear and during the first six months of 2018, 52% more space was leased in this segment than during the whole of 2017.

In Barcelona, the 22@ district is still the main hub of innovation in the city, attracting technological companies, startups and the digital eco-system. The main coworking operation this year, amounting to 4,500 m2, was completed in 22@ and these types of spaces already account for 3.5% of the constructed stock in the district (…).

Original story: Mis Oficinas 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lone Star Appoints Donald Quintin to Lead its European Business

27 February 2018 – Eje Prime

Lone Star is reordering its management team across Europe, including in Spain. Following the departure from the fund of one of its strong men, Juan Pepa, the company has appointed Donald Quintin to lead its business in the old continent (Europe). Mr Quintin, a former director of Hudson Advisors and Vinson and Elkins, is now going to take over the role of CEO for Lone Star in Europe.

Despite this change in its leadership, Lone Star is nevertheless pushing ahead to close operations that it had open in the Spanish market, and is also undoing positions in the real estate business in the country. Those include the sale of the last major asset of Project Octopus, a portfolio comprising more than €4 billion in real estate loans from Eurohypo in Spain and Portugal, which the US fund acquired together with JP Morgan three years ago.

Also, at the end of last year, the fund sold the former headquarters of Fecsa-Endesa in Cataluña, a building measuring 35,000 m2, whose three chimneys form part of Barcelona’s skyline and regarding which it is negotiating exclusively with the Tramway group and the German vehicle Indigo Capital.

That property has been empty for five years and has both environmental and change of use problems, which have conditioned its sale. Constructed on the site of a former coal generation plant dating back to the beginning of the twentieth century, it may be converted into an office building in the short term and could attract attention from coworking giants or large groups looking to set up their headquarters in Barcelona, according to sources in the sector.

But the move that caught the most attention in the real estate sector was Lone Star’s exit from the share capital of Neinor Homes following that firm’s debut on the stock market. The US fund completed the accelerated placement amongst institutional investors of 9.85 million shares in Neinor Homes in January, representing 12.5% of its share capital and worth €174 million.

After concluding that operation, Lone Star’s presence in Neinor Homes, a company that it had controlled in its entirety prior to its stock market debut, was reduced to a token 0.4% or 350,918 shares in total, which it held onto in order to agree the terms and conditions of the incentive plan for “certain directors and key employees”.

In practice, this sale represented the exit of Lone Star from the real estate developer that it had constituted just three years ago, in 2015, with assets purchased from Kutxabank. The divestment was completed before Neinor had the chance to celebrate its one year anniversary as a listed company, after it made its stock market debut at the end of March 2017.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Colonial Enters ‘Shared Office’ Market With Purchase Of Utopic_Us

23 October 2017 – Expansión

The real estate group Colonial made its debut in a new segment of the market on Friday with the purchase of a shared office firm Utopic_Us, which has its headquarters in Madrid. According to the company, “co-working and flexible spaces constitute a segment on the rise and offer new services to customers”.

As well as acquiring the company, for an amount that has not been disclosed, Colonial has agreed to inject capital for the development of a growth plan. Utopic_Us, which was founded in 2010 by Rafa de Ramón, has three co-working spaces in Madrid and plans to open a centre in Barcelona soon.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake