Altamira Sells One of the Best Available Plots in Valencia for a Record Price

13 March 2018 – Levante EMV

Altamira has sold one of the best free plots in Valencia for a record price. An investor group formed by entrepreneurs from Valencia and Madrid is going to build 26 luxury homes and 6 studios alongside the Mestalla football stadium. Altamira and the buyers declined to specify the purchase price, but market sources place it close to €1,200/m2. That price exceeds the €800/m2 that the US fund Harbert Management Corporation (HMC) and its local partner Momentum Real Estate Investment Management (REIM) paid a few weeks ago for some plots in Campanar and Alfahuir.

The investor group in this deal is led by the businessmen José Luis Basterra Leseduarte, Ignacio Polo Portilla and Mauro Sanchis Cabanes. Those investors have constituted the company Edificios Mestalla with a share capital of €3.3 million. The name refers to its first project on the plot purchased from Altamira, which is to be called Edificio Mestalla.

Sources at the company indicated that the construction permit has already been requested from the Town Hall of Valencia and that they expect to start the building work in eight months. The plot, which used to belong to Banco Santander, is located at the junction of Calle Antonio Suárez and Calle Chile. The plot is located close to Avenida de Aragón and the Valencia Club de Fútbol’s stadium. In recent months, several property developers have bid for the plots, but in the end, the investor group has acquired them. Market sources insisted that it is “a very good plot” thanks to its strategic location.

Altamira, which is a manager of real estate assets and which is owned by Apollo and other funds (85%) and Banco Santander (15%) says that the plot spans 397 m2 and is equipped for 32 homes spread over seven storeys. The intermediary declined to provide more details about the price of the transaction on the grounds of confidentiality.

The investor group indicated that the building will comprise luxury homes containing between one and three bedrooms. The one-bedroom flats will measure 40 m2 and the three-bedroom properties will span 150 m2. In addition to the 26 homes and 6 studios, the property will also have retail premises. Edificios Mestalla expects to start marketing the homes soon, although it does not have a deadline yet for starting reservations. Olivares Consultores is going to exclusively market the development, according to a statement issued by the firm this morning.

Guaranteed market

Sources in the sector highlight that these types of luxury housing developments have “a market” in Valencia. These types of projects, located close to the centre, are being drip fed onto the market because there are no available plots left (…).

Original story: Levante EMV (by Ramón Ferrando)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Andalucían Family Office Buys the Oriza Building in Sevilla

30 December 2017 – Sevilla ABC

With the economic recovery, the Sevillan real estate market is enjoying a sweet moment once again with the signing of numerous operations on the city’s main streets. The latest deal has been closed this week and has seen the iconic building that houses the Oriza restaurant, on the corner of Calle San Fernando and Jardines de Murillo, change hands. An Andalucían family office – an instrument used by wealthy families to invest in different sectors – has purchased the property from the company SF 41, owned by a Basque investor based in Madrid, in an operation advised by the real estate consultancy firm CBRE.

The property has a total surface area of 1,100 m2 distributed over four storeys. The Oriza restaurant will continue to operate in the building as a rental tenant. Although the amount of the sale has not been disclosed officially, based on the recent operations undertaken in the area, the figure is thought to range between €3.5 million and €4 million.

In 2012, the company Mares Consultores de Negocios, owned by the Extremeñan Antonio Ignacio Martínez de Azcona, purchased the building that is now leased to Hard Rock Café from the Rodríguez de Quesada family for €6 million. In 2013, Mares Consultores de Negocios sold that same building, which dates back to the 18th century, to an investor group from Bilbao for less than the €6 million that it had paid for the property nine months earlier.

The main feature of this building is its location, at the start of the High Street area in Sevilla, where the city centre’s pedestrian area begins. Moreover, it has historical value given that it shares a wall with the Andalucían capital’s ‘Reales Alcázares’, according to sources at CBRE.

According to Rosa Madrid, Regional Director of CBRE in Andalucía, “this operation is an example of the great appeal that the Andalucían capital has for investors, especially when it comes to assets in strategic locations. In this case, the thoroughfare of Calle San Fernando is a key part of the Sevillan High Street aimed at Food & Beverage, an increasingly more popular trend in the city, which has been boosted by the recent opening of the Hard Rock Café”.

CBRE’s investment team in Andalucía – which comprises Rosa Madrid, Ramiro Moreno and Rafael González- has closed several important operations in recent times, including the sale of a building in Plaza Nueva to the British fund Shaftesbury for more than €20 million, which constituted one of the most high-profile transactions of last year (2016) in the city of Sevilla.

Original story: Sevilla ABC (by M. J. Pereira)

Translation: Carmel Drake