Tag: entire buildings

WeWork to Launch its ‘Custom Buildout’ Business in Spain

28 March 2019 – Idealista

The US co-working company WeWork is studying the rental of entire buildings in Spain to dedicate to its custom buildout business. The service offers large corporations assets fitted out and managed by the brand. The company is already looking at potential properties in Barcelona.

WeWork now has ten co-working office spaces in Madrid and Barcelona (5 in each city), but its plan is to offer large corporations a new service that would house their headquarters and manage all of their needs, leveraging the firm’s know-how in the office management segment.

According to its business model, WeWork speaks to its clients first to understand their needs and desires. It then searches for the best offers, assumes the risks of a long-term contract and the capital investment, and manages the property for the company on an on-going basis, offering services such as fresh fruit, water and security, as well as events for employees.

In this way, the firm would start to compete directly with stalwarts of the sector such as CBRE, JLL, Savills Aguirre Newman and Cushman&Wakefield.

WeWork already offers this service to several corporates around the world, including Starbucks, Facebook, Adidas, Salesforce, Blackrock and Citi, amongst others.

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Corpfin Launches a Socimi to Invest €400M in High Street Assets

5 April 2018 – Expansión

The real estate manager Corpfin Capital Real Estate is accelerating its commitment to retail with the launch of a new Socimi through which it plans to invest €400 million in high street assets (retail premises at street level) between now and 2021. €200 million of that amount will proceed from own funds raised and the remaining from gearing.

The President and Founding Partner of Corpfin Capital Real Estate, Javier Basagoiti (pictured above), said that the fundraising process began in February and is expected to conclude in December or whenever the €200 million threshold is reached. In terms of investment timeframes, the manager calculates that the process will finalise in 2021 or whenever the target investment volume of €400 million has been reached.

In terms of the structure, this vehicle will comprise a Socimi from which four other Socimis will depend, in turn, which will be listed on the stock market, a formula known in the jargon as the “inverted comb”. The estimated date for the stock market debut of the four Socimis is September 2019.

Basagoiti explained that the objective is to acquire high street assets with a surface area of between 1,000 m2 and 2,000 m2, which involve, in many cases, the purchase of entire buildings that will require managing and will include mixed uses – residential, offices and hotels -. In any case, the value of the retail element of the asset must always exceed 60% of the total.

Corpfin is holding advanced negotiations to buy assets in País Vasco, Madrid and Valencia at prices ranging between €5 million and €52 million.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Be Mate Teams Up With Fund Q Capital to Grow its Tourist Home Business

23 March 2017 – Expansión

The businessman Enrique Sarasola has found a new formula for accelerating the growth of Be Mate, the rental platform for tourist apartments, through which he is complementing his Room Mate hotel offering. The plan is to team up with the investment fund Q Capital, which will contribute €100 million of funding so that Be Mate can search for, adapt and manage between eight and ten apartment buildings in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga and Sevilla.

“The project reinforces the idea that you can’t block progress”, explains Sarasola to Expansión, who also highlighted the importance of the fact that a “team as strong” as the one at Q Capital has decided to back the management of entire apartment buildings. The faces behind that firm include Íñigo Olaguíbel, Borja Oyarzábal and Borja Pérez.

Q Capital, founded in 2016, channels direct investments in Spain from Qualitas Equity Partners. Its objective is to find returns in segments such as SMEs and other niche areas not served by traditional financial operators.

Medium and long stay apartments

This alliance is going to give a boost to the concept already tested by Be Mate in the Plaza de España Skyline building: the management of entire buildings of tourist apartments. This business, inaugurated last year, is proving “a success”, explains Sarasola.

The novelty is not only in the financing, which is going to be provided by Q Capital, but also in the fact that Be Mate is going to go beyond the tourist home service to offer “apartments for medium and long stays, and for corporate use”. According to Sarasola, “it is another change that adapts to our times. We are pioneers in this field, but it is because we listen to our clients and we have identified that the need exists”.

Of the ten or so buildings planned, Be Mate has already identified five. The acquisitions will be undertaken over the next three years, initially in Spain, which is the “priority” market, but not at any price. “We will invest here for as long as the regulations are not prohibitive. If that changes, we will go overseas”, he warns.

Be Mate broke its own revenue record last year, by generating sales of €6 million, 10 times more than during the previous year. It sold 80,000 overnight stays for 30,000 clients, 40% of whom came from international markets. The company offers 10,000 apartments, 600 of which it manages exclusively.

Original story: Expansión (by I. de las Heras)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Barcelona’s Town Hall Reserves Right of First Refusal over 47 Buildings in Raval

12 December 2017 – Eje Prime

Ada Colau’s Government may make a new move in its commitment to social housing. The Town Hall of Barcelona has reserved the right to purchase 47 buildings in the Raval neighbourhood, where the acquisition and subsequent renovation of properties for social purposes is being proposed.

The objective of the Town Hall is to protect residents from losing their homes, either due to the poor condition of the properties in the area or problem with drug dens, as well as to boost activities relating to social housing policies, according to a report from Idealista.

The streets where this right of first refusal has been granted are Sant Ramon, Espalter and Robador. The intervention by the Town Hall in this regard started at the beginning of 2017 when the Town Hall of Barcelona approved the Catalan capital’s right of first refusal over entire plots and buildings. As such, the Town Hall has priority over the purchase of these assets before the owner is allowed to sell them to a third party.

To date, the Town Hall of Barcelona owns twelve blocks in the Raval neighbourhood, containing around 150 homes in total.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake