Tag: Leroy Merlin

Flagship Stores Become The Bastion Of Large Retailers

19 October 2017 – Expansión

The unstoppable rise of e-commerce, the tsunami of digitalisation and the new buying habits of consumers have revolutionised the retail sector forcing operators to adapt to the new times to stay competitive.

The e-commerce sector is now turning over €24,000 million per annum in Spain, with a growth rate of 20% p.a. In this context, consumers are increasingly using the internet to manage their purchases, resolve queries and optimise their visits to stores. As such, they are visiting stores less frequently but they are spending more time there when they do go, according to a report from CBRE about the retail sector.

In this context, large international brands are backing the flagship store model as a gateway into Spain; and operators that have traditionally based themselves on the outskirts of cities are now moving into flagship stores in the centre. By way of example, the French firm Kiabi opened a store on Paseo de Gràcia a few months ago. In the same way, operators who have traditionally had stores in retail parks are now making space for themselves in the city centre, such as Media Markt, which opened two stores in the centre of Barcelona in 2016. Before the summer, the electronics firm also opened its new its flagship store in Plaza del Carmen, Madrid, just a stone’s throw from Gran Vía.

Ikea is joining this trend too, with a store on Calle Serrano; as is Leroy Merlin, which is planning to open a shop on Calle Fontanella, next to Plaza de Catalunya in Barcelona

Interest in Spain

“Physical stores are still the favourite channel for consumers, but it is harder to get people out of the house. To attract them, retailers are opening large flagship stores focused on the shopping experience and expanding the range of services, supported by new technologies that allow marketing strategies to be customised”, explains Gonzalo Senra, National Director of Retail at CBRE España (…).

Given the interest from large brands in Spain and encouraged by the upwards cycle of the economy and the improvement in consumption, many overseas institutional investors have decided to back the Spanish market. For example, the US investor Hines has purchased four important prime premises in Madrid and Barcelona in the last year.

These types of investors are the main buyers of flagship stores in well-located premises, involving investment volumes of more than €20 million. Moreover, sources at the consultancy firm have noted a change in the trend in this market with the entry of several insurance companies bidding for large prime assets.

By contrast, the market for smaller acquisitions is dominated by Spanish private investors and family offices – they tend to be particularly interested in assets worth less than €10 million.

Overall, investment in high street premises amounted to €800 million in 2016. The rate of investment continued during the first half of this year, with an investment volume of €515 million, according to data from the consultancy firm (…).

The high level of demand has accentuated the typical shortage of well-positioned products and resulted in a reduction in returns. According to the report, the downward trend in yields continued in 2017 to reach 3.25% in some cases for the most prime products in Madrid and Barcelona (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

CBRE: 57% More Logistics Space Leased In Madrid During First 9 Months Of 2017

9 October 2017 – Eje Prime

Demand for logistics space in Madrid is soaring. During the first nine months of the year, 633,000 m2 of logistics space was leased, which represented an increase in demand of 57% with respect to the same period last year, according to data from CBRE. This rise in the volume leased was due not only to an increase in the number of transactions closed but also due to a rise in the number of transactions involving large surface areas.

233,000 m2 of logistics space was leased between July and September this year, of which 173,000 m2 (or 74%) related to the e-commerce sector. The most important operations carried out during the third quarter included the turnkey project in Illescas, with a surface area of 103,000 m2; the Leroy Merlin operation in Meco, spanning 59,814 m2; and the CEVA deal in Seseña, with a total surface area of 12,000 m2. In terms of the prime rent in the local distribution area, it remained at €5.25/m2/month.

In Barcelona, demand also remained very high and the lack of available spaces in the first and second ring alone, where the vacancy rate is just 0.5% and 1.6%, respectively, prevented the volume of new space leased from continuing at record levels, in line with the last two years.

In this sense, 80,000 m2 of logistics space was leased during the third quarter of 2017, down by 29% compared to the previous quarter (112,000 m2). In terms of the cumulative figure for the half year, more than 317,000 m2 of space was leased, 57% less than during the same period in 2016. The most important operation during the quarter was the rental by Naeko of a logistics warehouse with a surface area of 20,000 m2 in La Bisbal del Penedès.

In terms of prices, prime rent continued at €6,50/m2/month in the Catalan capital, although that figure is expected to rise over the next few months, due to the stark lack of available space.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lar España Secures Financing To Build Vidanova Parc Shopping Centre

22 September 2017 – Observatorio Inmobiliario

Lar España Real Estate has signed an agreement for the financing of the Vidanova Parc shopping centre located in Sagunto (Valencia). Under the terms of the contract, CaixaBank has granted the Socimi a €24 million loan to fund the construction of the shopping centre.

Building work on the shopping centre started in August last year, once the necessary preliminary phases had been completed to clean, prepare and urbanise the land. Vidanova Parc is expected to open its doors during the first half of 2018. The shopping centre will have a surface area of 120,000 m2, of which 44,252 m2 will be dedicated to retail and leisure. The centre will also have a car park with space for more than 2,300 vehicles.

Lar España says that more than 85% (of the space) at Vidanova Parc has already been leased. Specifically, the shopping centre’s future tenants include Leroy Merlin, Decathlon, C&A, Worten, Norauto, Burger King, Fifty Factory, Yelmo Cines and Urban Planet, along with another 30 brands to complement the food, sport, DIY, fashion, entertainment and leisure offering.

Sergio Criado, CFO at Lar España, highlighted his “satisfaction at having secured this new financing agreement, which is one of several to have been signed over the last few months, and which demonstrates the appeal of Lar España’s properties. In the case of Vidanova Parc, it also represents support for what is going to be one of the most important shopping centres in the region”.

Lar España’s investment in the project will amount to €53 million in total, in addition to the €40 million that the operators moving into the shopping centre are planning to invest. The complex will generate 1,000 jobs in total, split between direct and indirect roles, and the construction phase will create another 200 jobs.

Lar España Real Estate currently owns 31 real estate assets, whose value amounts to €1,448.2 million, of which €1,040.8 million corresponds to shopping centres, €178.6 million to office buildings, €83.3 million to logistics assets and €145.4 million to assets under construction, such as Vidanova Parc.

Original story: Observatorio Inmobiliario

Translation: Carmel Drake

Large Retailers Compete For City Centre Premises

14 September 2017 – El País

Retailers that typically occupy out-of-town stores only, brands such Ikea, Decathlon, Media Markt, Leroy Merlin and Kiabi have done an about turn with their strategies. Now, they want to take their products to the heart of cities to reach clients who are not visiting them on the outskirts. They are occupying the few large retail premises that are available close to the major commercial thoroughfares of Madrid and Barcelona. They are not pushing up the rental prices of these properties yet; in fact, they are investing between €1 million and €5 million on renovation work. But they will.

The main retail areas in the centre of Madrid and Barcelona have new tenants. The so-called out-of-town retailers, which, until recently, could only be found in retail parks on the outskirts are undertaking a new urban strategy. They want to approach a new group of customers, those who want to avoid using their cars and it wants to lock them in. This week, Decathlon announced that it will open three stores in the heart of Madrid, where Leroy Merlin will also set up shop in 2018, following in the wake of Ikea (which inaugurated its store on c/Serrano in May), Kiabi (which has just done the same in Barcelona on Paseo de Gracia) and Media Markt, the first to arrive in the centre of both cities (as well as in Valencia).

The trend started two years ago in major European cities and comes in response to a move by the population towards the centre and to the fact that e-commerce is requiring companies to respond rapidly to their clients. That means being close to them, explains Robert Travers, Director at the real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield (…).

The strategy of these chains is to open stores on the main commercial thoroughfares of large cities in smaller spaces than those they occupy in the out-of-town retail parks, but of considerable dimensions given that they are in the centre. “They are not looking for prime locations, but rather premises very nearby, because they cannot afford the rents of operators such as Zara, Mango and H&M. Instead they pay around 30% less because their margins are smaller”, says Travers. They need streets with high footfall and premises measuring at least 1,000 m2 or 2,000 m2, with open-plan floors; such features are very few and far between in the best shopping areas.

For the time being, the arrival of these brands has not had any impact on rental prices, given that, according to Sergio Fernandes, the Director of Retail at the consultancy firm JLL, the availability of these kinds of properties on the main commercial thoroughfares is very limited and the operators that demand them are also very few. “Only the leaders of each sector are brave enough to make the move. For the time being, we are seeing only six or seven brands”, he says. Examples include Aki, Bricor, Verdecora, Sport Zone and Kiwoko Mundo Animal. Nevertheless, “they are managing to make use of certain properties that would otherwise go unoccupied as they are not in the right locations for the fashion brands”, says David Barragán, Director of Retail at the real estate firm Aguirre Newman (…).

The search is not easy, according to estate agents and retail chains (…). The negotiations are intense and prolonged because the premises need renovating and the brands demand grace periods whilst the construction work takes place, which tenants typically pay. Rental contracts are being signed for periods of between seven and 20 years.

But it is worth it. The pilot store that the Swedish chain Ikea has opened in Madrid is performing better than expected. In fact, some of the new formulas that it offers have already been extended to its other stores (customisation of fabrics, dressers and doors). Nevertheless, Ikea is still assessing whether or not to open more central stores with this format, which combines sales and entertainment (…).

Original story: El País (by Claudio Álvarez)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Global Brands Colonise The Centre Of Barcelona

13 September 2017 – El País

(…). Demand from major operators, such as Zara, Uniqlo, H&M and even Seat, for flagship stores in city centres is boosting investment in these types of high-street establishments. According to a study by the real estate consultancy JLL, such investment amounted to €402 million across Spain during the first quarter of 2017

Examples of flagship stores (…) are found in the centre of Spain’s major cities. One of the most paradigmatic is Primark’s store, which occupies more than 7,000 m2 on La Gran Vía in Madrid (..). Flagship stores are essentially an image, a tourist attraction, where the entire collection of a company is presented and where consumers can also do online shopping and collect orders. It is also very typical for brands to make presentations and hold events at their stores.

In Barcelona, the H&M, Zara and Massimo Dutti stores on Paseo de Gracia, and the large store in the Born neighbourhood where the sunglasses brand Etnia took up residence this year, are examples of the presence of flagship stores in the Catalan capital. On 20 September, Uniqlo, the Japanese competitor of Inditex, will open a large store, also on Paseo de Gracia. But the interest in these types of establishments is not limited to the world of fashion. Companies such as Seat, Ikea and Leroy Merlin, and even large banking institutions, have all expressed their interest in raising their profiles on the main commercial thoroughfares.

“It is the way the brands have of positioning themselves in the market”, explains Daniel Jiménez, Director of Retail at the real estate consultancy Aguirre Newman. Jiménez says that there is a great deal of demand for these types of premises, and that the brands do not settle for any old shop: they want open-plan spaces, in good locations with attractive architectural features.

The effect on local trade

The main streets where the demand is being concentrated in Barcelona are Paseo de Gracia and Portal del Ángel, the most expensive high street in Spain, where prices amount to €3,360/m2, according to a report from Acotex. “The brands fight for premises, whilst the buyers, normally international investment funds, obtain a return of between 3.5% and 3.75% in Barcelona”, says Jiménez.

The emergence of large stores, through which the major international brands demonstrate their power, certainly has an effect on local businesses. The first and most obvious impact is the rise in rental prices. Joan Carles Calbet, President of Comertia and RetailCat, the new association of Catalan traders, celebrates the fact that increasingly more people want to invest in Barcelona. “But these types of stores distort the equilibrium of the city, because they (the large players) can afford to pay a lot more than local businesses, which leads to very high inflation”, says Calbet.

“We risk losing local businesses, which define the character of the city”, adds the President of RetailCat, an association that represents almost 30,000 local businesses (…).

Original story: El País (by Josep Catà)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lar Buys A Shopping Centre & 22 Eroski Stores From Rockspring For €111M

29 March 2017 – Inmodiario

The Socimi Lar is continuing to build up its collection of assets. It has spent €111 million buying the Parque Abadía shopping complex in Toledo and a portfolio of 22 Eroski stores, from the British fund Rockspring. It has completed these purchases entirely using its own funds, just one week after securing bank financing amounting to €104 million.

Parque Abadía, which Lar has purchased for a price of €63.1 million, is the largest retail space in Castilla-La Mancha, with a gross leasable area of 54,100 m2 – of which 37,114 m2 forms the subject of the transaction – and currently has an occupancy rate of 100%. It is the most iconic retail complex in the area, with retailers of the calibre of Alcampo, Media Markt, Decathlon, Leroy Merlin and Kiabi.

The location of Parque Abadía is another one of the asset’s strong points. Specifically, it is located on the motorway between Madrid and Toledo, which makes it highly visible and means that it can be accessed very easily. Parque Abadía is just ten minutes away from Toledo’s city centre and more than 300,000 people live within half an hour of the shopping centre by car.

Meanwhile, the 22 stores that Lar has purchased for €47.6 million are completely occupied and operated by the Eroski Group. They have a combined surface area of 28,822 m2 and the portfolio is very diversified from a geographical perspective.

Ten of the stores are located in the País Vasco – the area in which the retailer has its highest market share -, seven are located in the Balearic Islands, two in Navarra, another two in Cantabria and one in La Rioja.

The incorporation of these assets into Lar’s portfolio is allowing it to grow in the retail asset space. It now owns more than €1,000 million retail assets, which account for 75% of the Socimi’s total assets.

Lar owns 31 real estate assets, whose value amounts to €1,385.7 million, of which €1,072.4 million correspond to 16 retail spaces located in Madrid, Toledo, the Balearic Islands, La Rioja, Vigo, Valencia, Sevilla, Alicante, Cantabria, Lugo, León, Vizcaya, Navarra, Guipúzcoa, Palencia, Albacete and Barcelona.

Original story: Inmodiario 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Bankinter Launches A €400M Socimi For Its Private Banking Clients

27 December 2016 – Expansión

Bankinter has started to offer its private banking clients a new investment project. It is a Socimi, which the entity plans to launch on the MAB in around two months time. This entity will invest in commercial assets, such as supermarket, hypermarkets, retail premises and parks, as well as bank branches, in sought-after locations. The aim is to invest around €400 million in assets, of which around €200 million will come from contributions made by the entity’s clients and the remaining 50% from financing. The minimum investment per client will be €250,000, up to a maximum of 10% of their financial wealth.

For the launch of this investment vehicle, Bankinter has sought a partner with experience in the Spanish real estate market and in the management of commercial assets. The Portuguese real estate company Sonae Sierra, which owns more than 40 international projects in Europe, Africa and South America, seven of which are located in Spain, will take care of the search for and management of the assets that the Socimi buys. Like Bankinter, it will hold a minority stake in the new company, and two of its representatives will sit on the Board of Directors and on the Investment Committee.

Meanwhile, the bank led by María Dolores Dancausa will have three Board members and two representatives on the Investment Committee.

Anchor investors

The two partners will invest a maximum of €15 million in the case of Bankinter, with a minimum of €7.5 million; and €7.5 million in the case of Sonae, with a minimum of €3.75 million, if they achieve €200 million in equity for the upcoming stock market debut.

The Socimi will focus on buying commercial properties located mainly in Spain (the idea is that Spanish assets will account for 65% of the total portfolio) and the rest in Portugal. The minimum investment volume by operation will be €5 million to €20 million per asset or per portfolio of properties.

All of the assets that the Socimi acquires must be in good locations with long-term contracts that will run for at least five years. Its potential tenants include retail groups such as Mercadona, Carrefour and Día and other large operators such as Leroy Merlin and Decathlon.

Although the investment vehicle does not own any assets yet, it is already analysing ten operations, having made a series of non-binding offers. These deals include the purchase of a portfolio of hypermarkets worth €150 million and the acquisition of a retail park for around €20 million.

The Socimi hopes to achieve a gross asset value yield of between 6% and 6.5% during the first two years, which is higher than the returns offered by other listed real estate companies such as Axiare, Merlin and Realia, which this year expect to offer yields of 4.8%, 3.2% and 4.5%, respectively, according to information provided by Bankinter to its potential investors.

The aim of this Socimi is to offer an average annual dividend of between 4.5% and 5%, which is a much higher return than those offered by other banking products currently on the market. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lar España Invests €53M In Shopping Centre In Sagunto

29 September 2016 – Mis Locales

Lar España Real Estate has presented its plans for “VidaNova Parc”, a new project in which it plans to invest €53 million and which will open its doors in 2018.

VidaNova Parc has been presented with a surface area of 120,000 sqm, of which 44,000 sqm corresponds to the gross leasable area and the rest to open spaces, roads, gardens and parking spaces. It is being created to bridge a gap in the current market and will become a unique shopping centre and family leisure complex in its immediate environment. Around 250,000 inhabitants live in its catchment area (…).

Lar España’s investment in the project is expected to amount to €53 million, in addition to another €40 million that the operators moving into the shopping centre will have to invest. The complex will open its doors in 2018.

The site has a leasable surface area of 44,000 sqm.

With the launch of the construction work at VidaNova Parc, the first operators in the main consumer sectors have already been confirmed, including Leroy Merlín, Decathlon, C&A, Worten, Norauto, Burger King and Fifty Factory (Cortefiel Group). They will be joined by more than thirty brands….in this new shopping centre and leisure park. In addition, the centre will have 2,300 parking spaces.

José Manuel Llovet, Head of the Retail Area at Lar España Real Estate, has highlighted the strong presence of the company in the country through its ten shopping and leisure centres and the two projects that it has under construction. “Our mission, which is a major business priority, is to consolidate our activity in Spain; we want to grow with it, generate wealth, promote employment, and whereby boost the sector and innovate in the field of shopping and leisure”.

Original story: Mis Locales

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lar Acquires Vistahermosa Shopping Centre For €42.5M

20 June 2016 – Efe Empresas

The real estate investment company LAR España Real Estate (LRE) has acquired the Vistahermosa shopping centre, in the province of Alicante, for €42.5 million, as reported to Spain’s National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

The Vistahermosa shopping complex has a gross surface area of 33,550 sqm and is home to several high profile brands including Alcampo, Leroy Merlin and Media Markt.

The Chairman of Lar España, José Luis del Valle, highlighted that the purchase of the shopping centre “strengthens the quality of Lar’s portfolio” and increases its presence in the Mediterranean region, “one of the most attractive areas in Spain”.

Forecasts show that by the end of this year, the complex will receive 6 million visitors per annum.

Following the acquisition, the value of Lar España Real Estate’s assets amounts to €1,003 million, spread over ten autonomous regions. Of the total, €728 million relates to the acquisition of thirteen retail premises; €150 million to the purchase of four office buildings in Madrid and one in Barcelona; €70 million relates to four logistics assets in Guadalajara and one in Valencia; and €55 million corresponds to a residential asset in Madrid.

Original story: Efe Empresa

Translation: Carmel Drake

Savills: RE Inv’t In Retail Parks Reaches Historical Peak

3 May 2016 – Mis Locales

Retail parks are sparking interest in the real estate investment market in Spain. In 2015, investment in this type of asset amounted to €500 million, i.e. seven times more than in 2014. In the context of total retail investment, that figure represented 21% of total volumes in 2015 and accounted for 20% of the total amount invested in this segment since 2000, according to a specialist report about the market, which the international consultancy firm Savills publishes each year.

So far this year, investment in retail parks already amounts to €122 million, i.e. 18% of the total amount invested in the retail sector. Although the majority of that figure relates to the sale of six retail parks by Bogaris to the JV created by Redevco and Ares for €95 million, Luis Espadas, Capital Markets Director for Savills Spain, says that “this operation is evidence of the interest being generated by these types of assets, which are attracting both new profiles of investors and new property developers. The investment figures registered so far this year exceed those recorded during the same period in 2015.”

From the point of view of real estate investors, this sector, which generates returns of 6% for prime products and which is prone to decrease due to the imbalance between supply and demand, is very interesting in the context of the recovery in consumption, given that it requires only moderate investment volume and generates higher levels of profitability than for other retail products. Moreover, it is “safe”, due to the quality of its tenants and the fact that it barely requires any management following the purchase.

Retail space in retail parks, just over 1.85 million sqm, now accounts for 12.5% of the retail real estate market and construction activity is continuing to grow, boosted above all by traditional domestic players in this segment in the retail sector, although other investor profiles, such as the Socimis, have also started to develop retail parks, such as the complex that Grupo Lar has announced that it will construct in Sagunto. In addition, international property developers are expected to enter the market, especially from France, to actively seek out land.

According to the consultancy firm, all of this will boost investment forecasts, on the one hand, along with the arrival of new operators to the format in the retail sector, on the other hand.

For the time being, the expansion plans of operators familiar with this format, such as Leroy Merlin, which expects to open 25 new stores between now and 2020; Ikea, with new formats such as the new delivery point in Navarra; Media Markt, Sprinter and supermarkets such as Lidl and Aldi, as well as the entry into retail parks of less typical brands, such as H&M, C&A and Mustang, are proof of the consolidation of the retail park segment. (…).

The report also identifies which provinces have the greatest potential for the construction of retail parks, based on retail density and the spending capacity of each population. País Vasco, Cataluña, the Balearic Islands and Castilla León are the regions with the most suitable provinces for this business niche.

Original story: Mis Locales

Translation: Carmel Drake