30 March 2016 – El Confidencial
Eurostone, a real estate company headquartered in Luxembourg, has purchased the building located on the Madrilenian street Calle Espronceda, 32-34 from BBVA, which until 2013 housed the headquarters of the new agency EFE, which occupied the property for 35 years. The consideration paid for the operation has not been disclosed, but BBVA acquired it in March 2007 from SEPI (la Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales) for €51.25 million. The consultancy firm CBRE has advised the vendor, whilst Gabinete Inmobiliario and J. Pueche have advised the buyer.
The property, located just 300 m from Paseo de la Castellana, has a surface area covering more than 8,000 m2 spread across seven floors and more than 200 parking spaces. Eurostone already owns one property in Madrid following its purchase of a building on Génova 7 and three buildings in Barcelona, all in good locations.
The fund plans to convert the building on Espronceda into a luxury residential project in a neighbourhood, namely Chamberí, that has a shortage of new, high quality homes, and so it is hoping to become one of the iconic developments in the capital. The project, which will involve collaboration with the architect studio Lamela, will comprise homes and duplex apartments containing up to four bedrooms, terraces, gardens, a swimming pool, gym, etc. In addition, it will have more than 230 parking spaces and 1,700 m2 of retail space.
The building forms part of Project Zafiro, whose sale is being managed exclusively by CBRE. The portfolio of assets owned by BBVA comprises 15 buildings of different types, located in major Spanish cities, as well as in Lisbon, with a total surface area of more than 100,000 m2 and 1,300 parking spaces. This process has sparked interest from several funds, both domestic and international, and is close to being finalised. (…).
In addition, the building in question is located just 100 m from the former block of tenement flats (arranged around a patio, typical in Madrid, known as a “corrala”) that Pontegadea, the investment arm of Amancio Ortega, sold less than a year ago to the Catalan property developer Uniq, which specialises in the development of luxury homes, and which will be responsible for leading the development of the project.
According to sources at the time, Uniq will construct the homes, but another company, an investment fund whose identity has not been revealed, put up the capital to close the deal. The price of that operation amounted to around €20 million.
In addition, less than a kilometre away, on Calle Claudio Coello, number 108, another international fund, in this case the German fund Patrizia, recently entered the neighbourhood of Salamanca, with the acquisition of a residential building from Grupo Lar and Pimco for €22 million, where it plans to construct 14 luxury homes measuring 300 m2, with two or three parking spaces per flat.
Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)
Translation: Carmel Drake
Portugal 
Italy 
Greece 
