Tag: headquarters

Starwood Capital Finalises the Purchase of an Office Portfolio for €125M

24 January 2019 – Expansión

The fund Starwood Capital is seeking to strengthen its presence in Spain with the purchase of a portfolio of offices in Madrid and Barcelona. Specifically, Starwood is finalising the purchase of an office complex in Madrid, comprising four buildings, and another one in Barcelona from the Socimi Autonomy for €125 million, according to explanations from market sources speaking to Expansión.

In the case of Madrid, the four office blocks are located in the north of the city, inside the Omega business park, in the Arroyo de la Vega area. They span a combined surface area of 33,458 m2 and have 940 parking spaces.

The Omega Business Park, which is home to the headquarters of companies such as Samsung, BP and Allianz, is located next to the airport of Madrid and has become one of the most established areas in the north of the capital.

Besides the offices in Madrid, the operation also includes a new build property in the 22@ district of Barcelona, with a surface area of 12,596 m2.

The building in Barcelona comprises two towers connected by a common entrance hall, with twelve and four floors, respectively. The building also contains commercial premises and 216 parking spaces.

The building on Calle Pallars is occupied by tenants such as Regus, General Electric and Ticketmaster. The operation has been advised by the real estate consultancy CBRE, on the vendor side, and by Drago Capital, which has advised the buyer and which will manage the properties (…).

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Reuben Brothers Complete the Purchase of Santander’s HQ for €283M

14 January 2019 – El Periódico

Commercial Court number 9 in Madrid has decided that the best offer for the acquisition of Santander’s Ciudad Financiera, is the one presented by the brothers Simon and David Reuben through their investment arm in Spain, Sorlinda Investment, which bid a fixed amount of €283.73 million.

The administration responsible for the liquidation procedure of the company Marme Inversiones 2007, which is the owner of the Cantabrian bank’s headquarters, asked the Commercial Court to declare the offer presented by Sorlinda Investment as the winner after concluding that its bid was the best. In 2014, Marme Inversiones filed for creditors’ bankruptcy in light of its inability to repay the €1.575 billion loan that it had used to purchase the property from Banco Santander itself.

A few months ago, Banco Santander filed a series of allegations when it was announced that Sorlinda had won the bid. It questioned the entity in terms of the forecasts made in the liquidation plan, and because it considered that the offer submitted by the Reuben brothers did not fulfil the established requirements. The allegations were made by the banking group as creditor and offeror.

Nevertheless, the Commercial Court of Madrid explained that the execution of the liquidation plan, which regulates the procedures to be followed for the realisation of the assets, corresponds to the insolvency administration.

“The report presented explains the procedure followed for the selection of the bids submitted and the actions carried out by the insolvency administration, specifying that there are no justifications whatsoever to question it”, said the ruling, which states that the purpose of the plan is to obtain the greatest value from the asset for the benefit of all of the creditors.

In this way, despite the allegations presented by Ana Botín’s bank, the insolvency administration considers that, from an economic point of view, the offer presented by Sorlinda is the best for covering the loans of all of the creditors in the group.

The Reuben brothers, owners of other large assets

Reuben Brothers is a private investment group specialising in real estate development and debt financing. The company, created by two British brothers of Indian origin, is considered as one of the most exclusive in the world with several privileged properties in its portfolio, such as The Curtain and Members Club in Shoreditch, one of the most well-known luxury hotels in London, and Lingfield Park Marriott Hotel & Country Club.

It is also the owner of the London Oxford airport in Kidlington, the Wellington Pub Company chain of clubs and the Italian marina Portosole Sanremo, amongst others.

Ana Botín’s entity agreed the sale of its head offices in Boadilla del Monte to Marme Inversiones 2007 on 12 September 2008 for €1.904 billion.

Nevertheless, Marme Inversiones 2007 filed for creditors’ bankruptcy in 2014, before the Court then initiated the coordinated liquidation plan in October 2015 (…).

Original story: El Periódico

Translation: Carmel Drake

Mazabi Sells Fever’s New HQ in Central Madrid for €6M

14 January 2019 – Expansión

The Spanish family office Mazabi has decided to sell an office building that it owns along the Prado-Recoletos thoroughfare in Madrid, next to the Congress of Representatives.

The property, which has a surface area of 1,400 m2, spread over the basement and six upper floors, is located on Calle Santa Catalina, 4. Mazabi acquired the property three years ago as a value-added investment, and during this period, it has renovated it and found a new tenant to now sell it for a profit.

Specifically, the property is soon going to be home to the headquarters of the US social platform Fever in Spain. The company, which has headquarters in New York, London and Madrid, has decided to relocate to these new offices in light of its major growth plans. Fever’s employees are expected to move in once the renovation and design work for the new offices has been completed, in a period of approximately nine months.

The operation, which has been brokered by the real estate consultancy Catella, has been closed for €6 million. The buyer is a Spanish family office (…).

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

BNP Paribas Buys Agbar’s HQ in Barcelona for €60M

8 January 2019 – Expansión

The real estate arm of BNP Paribas has acquired the headquarters of the Agbar group located in Barcelona for more than €60 million. The building forms part of the office complex known as Distrito 38 and until now was owned by the US bank Goldman Sachs, which purchased it as part of a batch of assets in 2015 for €355 million.

It was one of the last operations to be closed in 2018 in Barcelona but it has not been published until now. The building used to be managed by Patrimony, the real estate firm founded by Jordi Tremoleda, and the previous owner was advised by Savills Aguirre Newman during the sale.

The property was designed by the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki and has a surface area of more than 16,200 m2. It was first occupied by Agbar in 2015, when that firm moved from Torre Agbar, the iconic building designed by Jean Nouvel, to this office complex located on Paseo de la Zona Franca in Barcelona, in search of a more functional building. In theory, the water management company said that it was going to be a temporary home whilst a new corporate headquarters was constructed, but for the time being, there is no information that a new transfer is being planned.

Agbar left Jean Nouvel’s tower after having agreed its sale with the fund manager Emin Capital, but that operation was not executed in the end and the Socimi Merlin Properties ended up acquiring the building at the beginning of 2017 for €142 million.

Despite being a recently constructed building, Agbar’s current headquarters has already changed owner several times. The office complex was designed by the real estate company Habitat, when that property developer was still owned by the Figueras family. The office development was then acquired by Caja Madrid and, in 2015, by which point it was in the hands of Bankia, it was sold to Goldman Sachs. Sources close to the US investment giant said yesterday that in just three years the bank has achieved a very profitable operation.

According to provisional data, as we wait for the final operations closed in 2018 to be published, Barcelona recorded a good year in terms of real estate investment, albeit below 2017. The consultancy firm CBRE estimates that the outlay on buildings could have amounted to €1.973 billion, compared with €2.177 billion the previous year. A large part of these operations (46%) correspond to the office sector, which accounted for investment of €906 million, compared with €757 million in 2017. According to the same report, 68% of the purchasers that invested in Barcelona were foreigners. And of the domestic investors, half were Socimis.

Original story: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés)

Translation: Carmel Drake

LaSalle Purchases Repsol’s HQ in Madrid for €100M

7 January 2019 – Idealista

A year of new real estate operations in Spain has begun and one of the first has been completed by an international fund. LaSalle Investment Management has purchased the future headquarters of Repsol in Atocha, in the Méndez Álvaro area of Madrid, from Royal Metropolitan for €100 million.

The building, located at number 23 Calle General Lacy, used to house the headquarters of the real estate consultancy Aguirre Newman, but that firm vacated the property in the summer to move to BBVA’s former tower on Paseo de la Castellana, 81 after it was acquired by the British firm Savills. LaSalle is a fund manager specialising in real estate investments. It is a subsidiary of the JLL group, listed in New York and the parent company of the real estate consultancy JLL.

Dating from the end of the nineteenth century, the building was formerly a Tabacalera warehouse until 1999, when Aguirre Newman undertook the renovation of the property to open its consultancy offices there. In the past, the asset was owned by the fund Zaphir, the manager linked to Aguirre Newman, although it has changed hands several times before ending up with another manager linked to a competitor firm.

LaSalle is one of the 20 largest managers of real estate funds in the world by properties under management, with an asset portfolio worth more than €53.2 billion at the end of the third quarter 2018. With its central headquarters in Chicago, the fund is present in 17 countries. The management firm was reborn following the merger of the British company Jones Lang Wootton and the US entity LaSalle Partners in 1999, which gave rise to the JLL holding company.

Original story: Idealista 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Unifersa Buys a 42,000m2 Industrial Plot in A Coruña

4 January 2019 – Eje Prime

Unifersa is expanding its warehouse. The Galician company, which is dedicated to the wholesale of industrial supplies and professional hardware, has acquired a plot of land measuring 42,000 m2 in A Coruña to expand its facilities.

The company will initially invest €10 million in the new site located in A Larancha, which will replace the headquarters that the firm has in Fene and which occupies 10,000 m2. The physical growth of the firm thus accompanies the development of the business, whose turnover exceeds €20 million.

If the forecasts from the consulting firm Savills Aguirre Newman are confirmed, the logistics market will have closed 2018 with an investment of €1.2 billion, 42% higher than the result for the previous year. That figure is accompanied by new demands from companies in the sector, which are looking for centres with a 100% logistics profile, as well as trying to find spaces with potential for return.

Nevertheless, the progression of the Spanish logistics sector has its response in e-commerce, which has boosted the sector to make 2018 one of its best years. E-commerce is the main factor responsible for the good performance of the business, which firms such as Airbus, Mercadona and Amazon have joined with new centres.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

An Investor Group Buys Ceade’s Former HQ in Sevilla from Altamira

14 December 2018 – Real Estate Press 

The property has a surface area of almost 5,000 m2, distributed over a basement floor and three upper floors. The amount of the operation has not been revealed. The former headquarters of Ceade is being added to the list of buildings that have been sold in recent years, such as the Vorsevi building, which has now been converted into a business centre, the Andalucían Institute of Technology, which is now occupied by Prodiel, and the former Cruzcampo Pavilion, which is going to host a centre for flamenco shows.

The investor has informed the manager of the Technology Park that it is going to house a project linked to teaching and higher education. One of the possible uses could be as a hall of residence for students, which “would oblige it to undertake a comprehensive renovation, involving demolitions, floor overlays and the creation of a new layout to achieve a centre with around fifty rooms as a result”.

The General Urban Plan of Sevilla provides for the social use of the La Cartuja area, and so legally, the construction of a hall of residence is possible. In fact, these types of initiatives are attracting interest from numerous foreign funds to the Andalucían capital.

Nevertheless, the management company of the La Cartuja Technology Park, which reports into the Ministry of Employment, is not in favour of the venue hosting any type of residential projects, and even more so at a time when the interest from companies in being located in this enclave is growing.

A pioneering initiative within the park  

The La Cartuja Science and Technology Park is predominantly a business space, where almost 500 companies live alongside each other, and where they are also public administration centres, health clinics, theatres, an amusement park and three hotels, the Renaissance, the Eurostars, and the Exe for the Olympic Stadium. The project in Ceade’s former headquarters would be the first of a residential nature.

Original story: Real Estate Press

Translation: Carmel Drake

Corestate to Invest €100M in Student Halls By 2019

4 December 2018 – Eje Prime

Corestate is growing in Spain three years after its arrival. The Luxembourg-based fund manager is going to invest €100 million in the development of new student halls in the Spanish market between the end of this year and 2019, according to comments made by Christopher Hütwohl, the Head of the company in the country, speaking to Eje Prime.

Currently, the group has several plots in its sights, located in the main provincial capitals of Spain. “Valencia, Málaga, Pamplona, Sevilla, Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Alicante are on our radar”, explained the executive, who also confirmed that between December and the first quarter of next year, the company plans to close at least three operations.

Corestate’s main objective involves becoming one of the top three players in the student hall market in Spain. “It is a segment that still has a lot of potential, which is why we do not want to limit ourselves to a specific number of projects”, says Hütwohl. In fact, the director confirmed that the company plans to develop around three developments in each city, with capacity for between 200 and 350 beds, “except for in Alicante due to the limitations of that territory”.

Similarly, the group has the intention of expanding its range of investments in Spain from 2019 onwards. “Now we are very focused on the market for student halls, but we also want to undertake more operations, especially in the office, retail and residential segments across the whole Iberian Peninsula”, explained the executive. In this way, Hütwohl made clear the company’s objective of entering the Portuguese market before 2020.

Corestate sweeps across Europe

This year, Corestate has undertaken one of the largest operations in Europe in the market for student halls of residence with the purchase of CRM Students for €17 million. It is the largest manager of student halls, which operates in the United Kingdom, with 24,000 beds spread across 145 cities. “The type of collaboration that we will carry out has yet to be determined, but thanks to that acquisition, we have exceeded the 30,000-bed threshold in the European market”, said the executive.

Headquartered in Luxembourg and with 560 employees, Corestate has 41 offices around the world, located in cities such as Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Singapore and Zurich. In Spain, the company’s team comprises three people, a number that will grow as new projects are delivered.

The company led by Michael Bütter ended 2017 with revenues of €195 million and the group expects to achieve a turnover of €230 million in 2018. The gross operating profit (EBTIDA) amounted to €123 million in 2017, whilst the net result amounted to €93.3 million.

Original story: Eje Prime (by B. Seijo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Goldcar’s Founders Acquire Bankia’s HQ in Alicante

30 November 2018 – Eje Prime

The founders of Goldcar have acquired the headquarters of Bankia in Alicante. The family office owned by the brothers Juan and Pedro Alcaraz, Aligrupo, has been awarded the property that the bank used to own in La Explenada area, and for which numerous offers have been made since it went on the market in October.

The offer received from Aligrupo was the highest of all those received for the building, which will no longer be in the hands of Bankia due to the property divestment process that the entity is carrying out following its merger with Banco Mare Nostrum (BMN), according to Alicante Plaza.

During the month that the building has been up for sale, Bankia has received around thirty visits, which is a good sign of the interest that this operation has sparked in the real estate sector in Alicante.

With this new purchase, the Alcaraz brothers are strengthening their property portfolio, which comprises luxury residential buildings for rent in Madrid. Over the last two years, Aligrupo has acquired two properties in the prime areas of Salamanca and Chamberí for that purpose.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Patrizia Buys a Logistics Asset in Toledo for €37.5M

28 November 2018 – Eje Prime

Patrizia Immobilien AG is gaining financial muscle in the Spanish market. The German fund manager has purchased a space measuring 66,424 m2, divided into two properties, south of Madrid for €37.5 million. With this operation, the company is strengthening another of its key segments in the Spanish real estate market, after launching its first residential project in the country in July 2017.

The latest complex is located in the municipality of Ontígola in Toledo and is leased in its entirety to two tenants: the transport company DHL and the company specialising in logistics for the textile sector Logisfashion. Both groups are expected to begin their activity in the premises during the first half of 2019.

Patrizia has acquired this logistics unit through its latest fund. In fact, it is the seventh fund that the company has launched in Europe with the aim of buying real estate assets, in particular in the segment for offices, industrial assets and residential properties.

“This operation underlines the company’s commitment to the Spanish logistics sector, which is experiencing one of its best ever moments due to the boost from e-commerce and the shortage of good-quality assets”, said Eduardo Roza, Head of Operations at Patrizia in Spain, in a statement.

Currently, the group manages four logistics properties located in Madrid and Barcelona, spanning more than 200,000 m2 in total. In Spain, Patrizia also has a portfolio of residential rental assets worth €1 billion. The company has its headquarters in Spain in Madrid, where it employs a workforce of fourteen.

The group is headquartered in Augsburg, Germany and was founded in 1984 by its current CEO, Wolfgang Egger. Patrizia Immobilien is one of the largest real estate investment management entities in Europe. The company controls a real estate portfolio worth €19.5 billion with assets located across more than fifteen countries in the Old Continent.

The company operates as a strategic investment advisor, both for large institutional investors (insurance companies, pension funds, sovereign funds, savings banks and credit cooperatives), as well as for domestic and international investors.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Berta Seijo)

Translation: Carmel Drake