Spain’s Shopping Centres Reinvent Themselves As Leisure Mega-Resorts

23 October 2017 – Expansión

Star asset / The boom in e-commerce and change in consumer habits are revolutionising the traditional concept of retail. Offering new experiences and turning their properties into iconic spaces are some of the maxims of the owners of shopping centres.

Much more than retail spaces. The new generation of shopping centres is evolving to incorporate a leisure concept for the whole family and to adapt to the demands of the millennials. Aquariums, artificial lakes, ski resorts, diving pools; everything fits into these new megaresorts designed for leisure, experiences and shopping.

“We have to implement new concepts, but without taking our eye off the ball in terms of the retail mix”, explain sources at Unibail-Rodamco, the largest listed commercial real estate company in Europe, which owns 13 centres in Spain, worth more than €3,500 million, and which plans to invest an additional €650 million in the country between now and 2024.

“We have introduced the DEX (Dining Experience), which aims to revolutionise restaurant spaces in shopping centres through a combination of architecture, design and leisure to offer a multi-sensorial experience”, explain the sources. They are adamant that “physical stores are not incompatible with e-commerce. In fact, we are seeing lots of the companies that originated in the digital environment now looking for physical points of sale. Amazon has opted to sell through physical stores with its acquisition of Whole Foods in the USA. We have also seen the same thing with Hawkers, the sunglasses brand, which recently opened its first physical store in Madrid”.

“Shopping centres are having to evolve to adapt themselves to the new needs and wants of customers, combining technology, multi-channels and experiences to reach more demanding end consumers”, explains Luis Lázaro, Head of the Shopping Centre division at Merlin Properties, which plans to invest €100 million over the next few years in both modernising the image of its centres as well as in updating its commercial offer.

José Manuel Llovet, Director of Retail at Lar – which owns 14 shopping centres in Spain – explains that the Socimi is working on improving the customer experience. “We are investing more than €60 million in Capex to adapt and modernise our centres, improve services and experiences, as well as implement the omnichannel strategy”.

Sources at Intu, owner of Puerto Venecia (Zaragoza), Intu Asturias (Asturias) and Xanadú (Madrid), which also has several important projects underway, say they use the shopping resort concept as the formula for attracting consumers, turning shopping centres into “tourist and leisure attractions”, and adopting a strategy of fewer operators with larger surface areas.

Meanwhile, Sociedad General Inmobiliaria de España (Lsgie) inaugurated Plaza Río 2 on Friday. One of the main features of that centre, located on the banks of the Manzanares River (Madrid) is its Mirador (lookout), which they define as “the best restaurant terrace in the capital” (…).

Carolina Ramos Alcobía, Director of the Shopping Centre Leasing department at Aguirre Newman, points out that Spain is promoting a model that moves away from the traditional shopping centre. “The trend is moving towards an aesthetics of open shopping centres, which are more like small towns or urban shopping centres; moreover, that concept is very highly favoured by the Spanish climate. The key is to get away from the stress associated with hectic, uncomfortable shopping centres” (…).

According to Ramos, “we are undoubtedly witnessing the largest transformation of shopping centres since they first opened in Spain, almost forty years ago. If they don’t spruce themselves up, they won’t survive” (…).

Investor appetite

In terms of investment (…), according to Javier García-Mateo, Real Estate Partner in Financial Advisory at Deloitte, “a voracious appetite exists for medium-sized shopping centres, which we have not seen for more than ten years”. According to data from Deloitte, so far this year, investment in shopping centres amounts to €2,300 million. In 2016, investors spent €3,769 million buying shopping centres in Spain, almost doubling the figure recorded in 2015 (…).

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo and M. Anglés)

Translation: Carmel Drake

La Liga Puts Its HQ Up For Sale For €3.5M

9 October 2017 – Eje Prime

La Liga is hoping to receive a bonus before Christmas. The football league association will complete its move to a new corporate headquarters before December and so plans to complete the sale of its current offices during the final stretch of 2017 or beginning of 2018, according to Palco23. The football clubs’ delegated commission approved the sale of the building at the beginning of the year and has now commissioned the valuation of the building before it puts it on the market: €3.52 million.

The valuation has been performed by an independent third party and has forced the entity chaired by Javier Tebas to recognise a loss amounting to €1.04 million. That is because the price that has been assigned to the property, located at number 10 Calle Hernández de Tejada, is lower than its net book value in the accounts.

The building has a surface area of just over 1,100 m2 and La Liga tried to squeeze into the various floors as it continued to grow. Nevertheless, two years ago, the association decided to rent some additional offices around the corner, and in the end, has decided to concentrate all of its activity in a single building, located just 800m away from the historical headquarters.

As such, the association that represents first and second division clubs will occupy four of the seven floors in Edificio Murano, located at number 60 Calle Torrelaguna. That building is owned by the real estate group Hispania, which has secured the occupation of more than 50% of the property’s surface area (7,574.6 m2) thanks to Spanish football.

The move will not only result in an improvement in the conditions of the 158 workers that La Liga employs, it will also allow the body to offer a more modern image. Compared to the antiquated facilities at Hernández de Tejada, the new headquarters will be located in a glass building with views of Avenida de América and Calle Arturo Soria.

The office market in Madrid

The office market is one of the most active in the Spanish real estate sector. During the first six months of the year, 275,037m2 of office space was leased in the capital, a very similar figure to that recorded during the first half of 2016. According to the real estate consultancy Aguirre Newman, activity has been improving throughout the 6 months.

Another significant feature in the market has been the recovery of large volume operations: 25 deals were signed for spaces spanning more than 3,000 m2, which accounted for 42% of the total volume of operations closed. Those figures include La Liga’s new building on Calle Torrelaguna.

The overall office availability rate in the market in Madrid has decreased significantly over the last six months, from 11.4% in January 2017 to 10.8% in July 2017, as the volume of available space decreased by more than 74,000 m2.

In terms of prices, during the first half of the year, average rents grew in all areas, to reach an average half-year a rise of 3.9%. The average rental cost in the capital’s business district rose to €28.94/m2/month, whilst average rents in the peripheral areas amounted to €12.61/m2/month.

The most significant increases in rental prices by area were recorded in the central business district, with an average rise of 7.7% in six months. That mainly occurred as a result of a change in companies’ requirements, since they are now prioritising location and building quality over rental cost.

Original story: Eje Prime (by M. Menchén and C. Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake