Tag: Instituto de Empresa

Madrid & Barcelona Enter Top 40 Most Attractive Global Cities for Retail

19 October 2018 – Eje Prime

Madrid and Barcelona are two of the most attractive cities in the world for retail. The two Spanish cities rank amongst the forty most attractive places for commercial activity, according to the Hot Retail Cities report, compiled by Modaes.es, with the support of Tendam and in collaboration with Instituto de Empresa.

The top 3 of the ranking features New York, Los Angeles and Singapore. Madrid and Barcelona are ranked ahead of metropolises such as Milan and Moscow, boosted by factors such as economic openness, the socio-economic environment and the presence of international operators. Moreover, in the fashion category, the two cities are also cradles of some of the world’s retail titans, such as Inditex, Mango and Tendam, and they are home to one of the largest European department store groups, El Corte Inglés.

Barcelona is ranked at number 29 on the list, scoring 425 points out of a possible total of 1,000. Tourism, the presence of fashion operators in the city, the commercial streets and their structure and geographical location are the key factors that place Barcelona within the top thirty hottest cities on the planet. In recent years, the city has become a gateway for major international retailers, such as Uniqlo, which chose the city for its debut in Spain.

Meanwhile, the Spanish capital is positioned at number 36 in the Hot Retail Cities ranking with 410 points. In the case of Madrid, factors that work in its favour include commercial openness, economic stability and recovery, and the multiplicity of prime thoroughfares such as Calle Serrano, Gran Vía, Fuencarral and Calle Preciados.

The criteria for compiling the ranking are grouped together under eight general points that companies assess when it comes to studying the city: demographics, economy, politics, socio-economic environment, tourism, retail, fashion and trendy cities. In addition, analysis criteria are included about the more or less optimal conditions of each city for international retailers.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Villar Mir Sells 49% Of Fifth Tower To Andrew Tan

27 March 2017 – Inmodiario

Making money to reduce OHL’s mounting debt is still imperative for Grupo Villar Mir. And it was in this context that the latest operation was signed between the holding company controlled by the 80-year old civil engineer and the real estate company Megaworld, owned by the Philippine businessman Andrew Tan. The businessman has become the new partner in the project to develop Caleido, the fifth tower in the Castellana complex. In 2015, the construction group sold Torre Espacio to Tan for €550 million.

The agreement will turn the Philippine businessman into one of Villar Mir’s partners, as owner of 49% of the company that is running the project, which includes the construction of a skyscraper measuring more than 180 m tall and an underground shopping area with a surface area of around 12,000 m2. Tan will spend around €150 million on the purchase. PwC has acted as legal advisors to Espacio during the operation and the law firm Pérez-Lorca has represented Megaworld.

In January, the Chairman of the Villar Mir group, Juan Miguel Villar Mir Fuentes, unveiled so-called project Caleido, together with the Mayor of Madrid, Manuela Carmena. This complex, in which around €300 million is expected to be invested, includes a high-rise building, which will house a university campus to be operated by Instituto de Empresa and a medical research centre to be managed by Grupo Quirón.

In addition, the plans include an underground shopping area, covering around 12,000 m2, a park measuring 33,000 m2 where concerts and other cultural activities will be held, and 2,000 parking spaces.

Villar Mir was awarded this plot of land in 2014 under a 75-year concession, after he agreed to pay the Town Hall of Madrid an annual fee of €4 million (after an initial four-year grace period). Initially, a conference centre was going to be constructed on the site. (…).

The future architectural complex, designed by the architectural studio Fenwick & Iribarren, in conjunction with the Serrano Suñer Arquitectos studio, will comprise two separate spaces: a 160 m tall building with 36 floors, and a four-storey base building measuring 20 m tall (…).

Original story: Inmodiario

Translation: Carmel Drake

Mastercard & Commerzbank Move Into Torre de Cristal

13 September 2016 – El Confidencial

The Cuatro Torres district is the new “City” in Madrid and is one of the areas where the leading real estate players have been operating with the most intensity over the last two years. The company chaired by Ignacio Garralda, Mutua Madrileña, fired the starting gun in February 2015, when it signed an agreement with KPMG to lease 18 floors in the Torre de Cristal, a third of the entire building, in an operation that allowed it to boost its occupancy rate from 42% to 70%.

Just four months later, Grupo Villar Mir put Torre Espacio up for sale, which the Philippine Group Emperador ended up buying for €558 million. By then, the skyscraper where PwC has its headquarters – the black tower that is also home to the Eurostars Hotel – had already changed hands, thanks to Merlin’s acquisition of Testa, and the sheikh Khadem al Qubaisi had already started putting the feelers out to sell Torre Cepsa, the skyscraper for which Amancio Ortega has offered to pay €490 million, according to El Confidencial.

Amidst this game of Monopoly being played out at the north of Paseo de la Castellana, two overseas financial entities, Mastercard and Commerzbank, have decided to transfer their offices to Torre de Cristal, the highest building in Spain, which measures 250m tall and contains 52 floors.

The credit card company has already moved into the skyscraper, whilst the German bank is currently undertaking refurbishment work ahead of its move before the end of the year.

But these two entities are not the only ones who have decided to move into the building owned by Mutua Madrileña. In recent months, following the arrival of KPMG with its 1,900 professionals, Torre de Cristial has seen a significant increase in the number of itstenants, after sealing several agreements with companies such as Red Hat, Cerner and Gesternova, which has allowed it to increase its occupancy rate to more than 82% and lease out a further 5,000 sqm.

Hardly any free floors left

The direct impact of the appetite for these skyscrapers from tenants and owners alike means that there are hardly any free floors left in the Cuatro Torres district (…).

Tower Sacyr (now owned by Merlin) is the only fully occupied tower, but it had to drastically reduce its rental prices to reach an agreement with PwC in 2011, during the worst years of the crisis, in order to acheive that.

Bankia also demanded that Cepsa occupy 100% of Torre Foster, but the oil company has now decided to put eight vacant floors up for rent. Those floors have a surface area of 13,000 sqm, a figure that is slightly higher than the 10,200 sqm that is also being marketed in Torre Espacio, the skyscraper where the main tenant is Grupo Villar Mir, which occupies half of the building.

These numbers show that the average occupancy figure for the Cuatro Torres district now exceeds 80%, a ratio that it has reached at a time when Azca, the traditional financial district in Madrid, is seeing a significant number of its properties undergo profound transformations.

The Cuatro Torres area will be further consolidated as a business centre with the upcoming construction of the so-called Fifth Tower, a skyscraper being developed by Grupo Villar Mir, in partnership with the fund Corestate, which Instituto de Empresa will occupy along with the health group Quirón, according to experts.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Villar Mir & IE To Sign An Agreement For Fifth Tower

26 January 2016 – El Confidencial

Nine months after winning the bid arranged by the Town Hall of Madrid to construct a skyscraper in the capital’s new financial district, Grupo Villar Mir has reached an agreement with Instituto de Empresa (IE) to allow the business school to occupy the majority of the building.

El Confidencial has confirmed with several sources close to the negotiations that the two parties expect to sign an agreement this week. And that signature will signal the starting gun for Madrid’s new skyline, as well as ensuring the viability of the project after several months of uncertainty.

The future picture of the five skyscrapers underwent some serious difficulties last summer when the initial candidate proposed by Grupo Villar Mir, the prestigious Mount Sinai hospital group, decided not to go ahead with its plans to open a health centre in the fifth tower.

In fact, the owner of OHL was awarded the land on the basis of the proposal that it would house a private hospital, with recreation and retail service areas. The plans were presented together with a letter of intent from Mount Sinai, saying that it would occupy the fifth tower, but that ended up being worthless.

Following the exit of the US group, Villar Mir began making contact with several real estate consultancy firms to find a new tenant that would comply with the requirements imposed by the town hall, namely that the property must be used for health or education purposes. Those conversations have ended up with the proposed agreement with the IE Business School.

The prestigious centre, whose MBA has just been chosen as the 12th best in the world and the best in Spain according to the Financial Times, is continuously looking for spaces to expand its educational offering. As such, it is now the neighbour with the most properties in the prestigious neighbourhood of Salamanca, which is home to its different centres, above all, around Calle María de Molina.

With the move to the fifth tower, the educational empire controlled by Diego del Alcázar would expand its classrooms beyond its traditional area of operation, but would maintain its policy of operating within Madrid and in the most representative areas for the business world.

75 year concession

The fifth tower is expected to be completed within four years, by 2020. It is an ambitious plan, which Grupo Villar Mir will tackle in partnership with the Swiss fund Corestate. The two partners have created the company Iberian Corestate, whose first operation will involve the investment of €240 million in the new skyscraper.

On the basis of the original design that won the bid, the new building will have 52,500 m2 of public space and 17,500 m2 of retail space. It will be constructed on land that will continue to be owned by the town hall, but which will be operated by Grupo Villar Mir for the next 75 years.

The group was awarded this concession after committing to pay a fee of €4 million per year to the town hall for the duration of the concession period, a figure that is much higher than the €1.9 million bid starting price.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake