Tag: Madrid Río

The Capriles Family will Set the Tone for Operación Calderón with Flats Priced from €5,700/m2

14 February 2019 – El Confidencial

It is a question of weeks. Gran Roque, the investment vehicle owned by the Venezuelans Miguel Ángel and Áxel Capriles, is going to start marketing homes in its most affordable development in Madrid within the next few weeks. The development comprises 105 homes and is located just 600 metres from the Vicente Calderón stadium. The properties are going to be put on the market for €5,700/m2. That price will, undoubtedly, serve as a reference for the potential buyers of the plots in the future Operación Mahou-Calderón, which is currently on standby until the plans for the urbanisation and Reparcelation of the area have been definitively approved.

As reported by El Confidencial, in October 2017, the Venezuelan clan purchased buildable land from Prosegur, just a few metres from where Operación Calderón is going to be built. For that plot, which has not required any type of urban development procedure and which is designated for residential use, as provided for in the General Urban Development Plan (PGOUM) for Madrid dated 1997, they paid around €25 million, approximately €2,900/m2. That price is close to those what is being considered for the plots owned by Atlético de Madrid.

According to explanations provided to El Confidencial by various sources, the development comprises five 5-storey buildings – except for one that has 4 storeys – and to optimise the price, Gran Roque has decided to start by marketing just two of the blocks, which contain 55 flats. In other words, like other property developers have been doing in Madrid, if the first homes maintain a high rate of sales, all indications are that the prices in the subsequent phases will be higher.

The construction permit will be ready by the end of April or the beginning of May, and so the marketing cannot officially begin until then. Nevertheless, 20% of the 55 units have already been reserved, according to assurances given by those same sources.

The project includes 2-, 3-, and 4-bedroom homes, all of which have a parking space and storeroom included in the price. The smallest units will go on the market from €450,000 plus VAT; the 3-bedroom homes will start at €550,000; and the largest homes will cost more than €600,000. That equates to a price of €5,700/m2, which is very high for many Madrilenians, but well below the prices typically charged for luxury developments.

Located just a few metres from Madrid Río and the Río Manzanares, the development will contain two swimming pools (one for children and one for adults), a gym, a children’s play area, a bicycle room and 24-hour surveillance, amongst other features. In total, it will have 1,719 m2 of common space (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Insur to Invest €70M in Office Complex in South of Madrid

31 January 2018 – Eje Prime

Insur is committed to the world of work. The Andalucían group is going to invest €70 million in the south of Madrid to build an office complex that will have a total surface area of 30,000 m2. The project will involve the construction of two buildings alongside Madrid Río.

The company chaired by Ricardo Pumar plans to inaugurate the complex at the end of 2019. The Madrid Río area, where the offices are going to be built, is one of the most sought-after by the real estate sector at the moment. This is evidenced by the Operación Calderón, which will constitute one of the most important real estate operations in recent times in Madrid when it is completed in June.

Insur’s development in the Spanish capital is going to be undertaken through an alliance with two financial partners, in which the group holds a 50% stake. This investment in prime offices will also strengthen the company’s real estate arm, which is looking to diversify both by geography and by segment.

Indeed, this week, the property developer announced the segregation of its property development and real estate businesses. In this sense, Insur has opened a new line of business with its inclusion in the hotel sector, where it already owns three buildings under development, including one establishment in Zahara de los Atunes (Cádiz), which will have 500 rooms. The other two properties will be located in Córdoba and Sevilla and will be operated by Hotusa.

Moreover, the real estate company is looking for opportunities to build out-of-town retail spaces in Spain to expand its real estate portfolio, which is currently worth €294 million.

The objective of Grupo Insur for 2018 is to strengthen its real estate arm, without forgetting about the residential sector. In fact, in that segment, it is going to invest between €75 million and €80 million until 2020 buying up developable land. Currently, the property developer has 2,039 homes under construction and owns a land portfolio with the capacity to build another 2,652 more residential properties.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

More Than 1 Million People Visit Plaza Río 2 In <1 Month

13 November 2017 – Press Release

On its first two days of opening (20 and 21 October), the Plaza Río 2  shopping centre recorded its highest footfall figures, with 86,000 visitors on each day, taking the average entry rate to 6,000 people per hour. 

Plaza Río 2 expects to receive 1,500,000 visitors between Black Friday and 6 January 2018, which marks the end of the Christmas campaign.

The Plaza Río 2 shopping centre is taking stock of its performance since it opened on 20 October 2017. And it is doing so with a round number. In just over 20 days, it has broken the threshold of 1 million visitors. This data reflects the fact that the public like the wide range of possibilities on offer there.

During its first two days of opening (20 and 21 October), it recorded its highest footfall figures, with 86,000 visitors on each one of those dates, which represents a spectacular average entry rate of 6,000 people per hour. Plaza Río 2 opened on a date that was not particularly well suited to trading, given the weather, which makes the 1 million visitor figure even more impressive. If we look at the days of the week that have received the most footfall, Saturdays are the busiest day so far, followed by the bank holidays.

In terms of where the visitors are coming from, it must be said that they are arriving from both sides of the banks of the Manzanares River. Plaza Río 2 represents a breath of fresh air for the area from a commercial perspective and, moreover, has managed to entice people from other parts of the capital. In short, the new public is on the lookout for new leisure spaces. The managers of the centre are very happy with the results obtained so far and state that they hope to receive 1,500,000 visitors between Black Friday and 6 January 2018.

With 160 establishments filling its 40,000 m2 space, the centre managed by the property developer Sociedad General Inmobiliaria de España (LSGIE) offers a unique shopping experience that has been enhanced by a very interesting gastronomic proposal. The Mirador de Plaza Río 2, with the largest restaurant terrace in Madrid (3,000 m2), is home to 9 dining premises, catering for every culinary taste.

With an investment of €200 million and 100% of the stores leased before it opened, the centre has created 1,800 direct jobs and provided employment to 2,000 people during the construction phase. Moreover, it has managed to attract brands that are not typically found in shopping centres, such as the case of Victoria’s Secret, Armani Exchange and H&M Home.

Plaza Río 2 comprises 6 floors, 3 dedicated to shopping, 2 to parking and 1 to dining. Its modern, urban and state-of-the-art style has made it a commercial attraction for visitors to the Matadero and Madrid Río, as well as for residents of Usera, Arganzuela and Madrid centre. Natural light is the main protagonist of the building, which is equipped with the most advanced systems in terms of energy efficiency and sustainability. It has 35 bays for recharging electric vehicles and the building’s lights automatically adjust the intensity of the light they emit depending on needs.

The French property developer Sociedad General Inmobiliaria de España (LSGIE) has been responsible for undertaking this project, which represents its eighth shopping centre in Spain and its fifth in the Community of Madrid, after it first ventured into the capital in 1983 with Madrid 2 La Vaguada.

Original story: Press Release

Translation: Carmel Drake

Atlético De Madrid Wants To Sell Operación Calderón Land For €3,300/m2

10 November 2017 – Cinco Días

Atlético de Madrid is looking to shake up the real estate sector with a record-breaking operation. The club is heating up the housing market with an operation to sell the plots on the site of its former Vicente Calderón stadium, through which it wants to achieve much higher prices than are currently being paid for land in the surrounding area.

The club, chaired by Enrique Cerezo and controlled by Miguel Ángel Gil, has engaged the consultancy firm CBRE to sell the plots of land, and the first round of offers have already been received. Atlético has already been sounding out potential buyers regarding a land asking price of €3,300/m2, according to four companies in the real estate sector, which would represent a record in this part of the Spanish capital.

That high land value would mean that the houses built on the site would have to be sold for approximately €6,000/m2, according to the calculations performed by several sources. That figure is equivalent to other more expensive areas in the capital and represents almost twice the current sales price of new build homes in the district of Arganzuela, where the stadium is located. According to the appraisal company Tinsa, new homes in this neighbourhood are currently being sold for prices ranging between €3,000/m2 and €4,000/m2, based on data as at 2017.

Specifically, Atlético is selling three plots of land, which have a total surface area of 63,076 m2, of which 57,094 m2 corresponds to residential use and the remaining 5,892 m2 to commercial use. Around 500 homes are expected to be built on the site. If the club manages to find a buyer willing to pay €3,300/m2, it will receive proceeds of €210 million. If the price ends up being €3,000/m2, the purchaser will have to spend around €190 million.

This urban planning operation is linked to the club’s change of stadium after it moved this season from its former pitch next to the Manzanares River to the new Wanda Metropolitan (…). Moreover, the football team needs to sell these plots to repay Inbursa – owned by the magnate Carlos Slim – for a €160 million loan that it was granted to build its new stadium.

The so-called Operación Mahou-Calderón, which also includes the adjacent plots on the site of the former brewery headquarters- but which are not included in the sale now being undertaken by Atlético – was approved by the municipal plenary in September. The buildability of that environment has decreased from 175,000 m2 to 147,000 m2 with respect to Ana Botella’s plan dated 2014.

Sources in the sector explain that CBRE has already received at least five offers during the first phase of the process, which is expected to close at the beginning of 2018. For the time being, it is not known whether any of these bids exceeds the figure of €3,000/m2 that Atleti is looking for (…).

Sources at the real estate consultancy firm Knight Frank calculate that the price of land in this neighbourhood amounts to a maximum of between €2,400/m2 and €2,800/m2. They explain that recent similar purchases in the district of Arganzuela, in the Méndez Álvaro area, for example, were closed for a price of between €2,000/m2 and €2,220/m2.

However, some experts in the residential market do believe that the €3,000/m2 threshold may be broken due to the high purchase pressure currently in play, primarily due to interest from international funds. They also consider that these plots are very attractive, located as they are in the Madrid Río area, and so they expect the degree of interest in them to be high.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the river, in the Usera area, Neinor Homes is marketing quite an exclusive development called Riverside at prices that exceed €4,000/m2, according to the portal Fotocasa, and the penthouses are going for €6,000/m2.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Madrid’s ‘Plaza Río 2’ Shopping Centre Will Open Its Doors On 20 October

27 September 2017 – Press Release

The Plaza Río 2 shopping centre, which is located on the banks of the Manzanares River and opposite the Matadero of Madrid, will open its doors on 20 October.

The new shopping centre, in whose construction almost €200 million has been invested, spans a commercial surface area of 40,000 square metres. It will be one of the iconic shopping centres in the capital and will house up to 160 stores for large domestic and international groups.

Plaza Río 2 is a comprehensive and innovative alternative, thanks not only to its extensive retail, leisure and gastronomic offering, but also its privileged location inside Madrid’s urban perimeter.

This ambitious project has been integrated into the Madrid Río initiative, and is the result of a collaboration between the public sector and a private company to achieve a positive impact on local employment, in harmony with the local environment.

It is the first major real estate project from the Town Hall of Madrid’s current government and it will provide a strong economic boost to the area. Plaza Río 2 has generated approximately 2,000 jobs during the construction phase and, following its opening, will create 1,800 permanent roles. In addition, it is going to offer the perfect combination of leisure, entertainment, fashion, gastronomy and services for the inhabitants of the neighbouring districts of Centro and Ribera del Manzanares.

The opening of Plaza Río 2 will be accompanied by the inauguration of the Mirador de Plaza Río 2, the largest restaurant terrace in the capital, covering a surface area of more than 3,000 m2. Visitors will be able to enjoy spectacular views of the city from the rooftop, together with a varied gastronomic offering. It is regarded as the pinnacle of the Madrid Río project.

Plaza Río 2 has been designed by the architecture firm Chapman Taylor and will comprise three retail floors and a fourth dedicated exclusively to restaurants. Natural light will feature heavily throughout the centre and the building will be equipped with the most advanced systems in terms of energy efficiency and sustainability.

The project has been promoted by La Sociedad General Inmobiliaria de España (LSGIE), taking its portfolio of shopping centres across Spain to eight. LSGIE’s first centre was Madrid 2 La Vaguada, and since then, it has embarked on several others, including:

Plaza Loranca 2, Gran Vía 2, Plaza Norte 2, Gran Plaza 2, La Villa2, and Plaza Mar 2. For management purposes, LSGIE relies on the ‘Company for Shopping Centres in Spain’ or ‘Sociedad de Centros Comerciales de España’ (SCCE) which offers its services, knowledge and experience in this sector.

Original story: Press Release

Translation: Carmel Drake

Plaza Río 2: Madrid’s Newest Shopping Centre Will Open In October

3 March 2017 – Mis Locales

A new shopping centre will open in Madrid in October and it will be strategically located, next to Calle 30. The shopping centre is being built on the banks of the Manzanares River, opposite the Matadero cultural centre in Madrid, and its area of influence will span 500,000 inhabitants.

The new shopping centre will mainly serve the districts of Usera, Carabanchel, Villaverde Centro, Arganzuela and Puente de Vallecas. It will be directly accessible from the A-42 (Toledo) and the A-4 (Andalucía) motorways and will have good public transport links, including several bus and metro stops and a local train station.

Plaza Río 2 will have a surface area of 40,000 m2 and will house more than 150 stores, spread over three floors. In turn, it will have a fourth floor, the “Mirador del Río”, which will be used exclusively for restaurants. The shopping centre will offer fashion and gastronomy from the largest domestic and international groups in each sector.

The property is being developed by Sociedad General Inmobiliaria de España (LSGIE), which is whereby adding a new shopping centre to its portfolio. In total, the company now owns nine premises, including Plaza Norte 2, Gran Plaza 2, Plaza de la Moraleja and Madrid 2 La Vaguada.

Original story: Mis Locales

Translation: Carmel Drake

Neinor To Build 20-Storey Residential Tower Next To Manzanares River

23 January 2017 – El Mundo

A new and unique tower is about to appear on the Madrid skyline. The property developer Neinor Homes is going to build it and it will be located on the banks of the Manzanares River, in an area that, following the transformation resulting from the Madrid Río initiative, has become one of the most attractive and dynamic in the capital.

Since June 2015, when we found out that the property developer, whose main shareholder is the US investment fund Lone Star, had closed an operation to purchase three plots of land, including this one, located at number 33, Calle Maestro Arbós, and that it had planning permission to construct a 20-storey residential tower, everyone has been very interested in finding out more about the plans. (…).

Now, two weeks before the properties in the development go up for sale (on 8 February), El Mundo has had access to the Riverside Homes dossier, the development that Neinor plans to build in Madrid Rio and for which it requested a construction permit at the end of November (…).

It is a unique residential complex, designed by the architect Julio Touza Rodríguez, and will be distributed over two buildings. The undisputed protagonist will be the 20-storey 72m tall tower, which will be accompanied by another 3-storey block measuring 12m tall. In total, the properties will have a combined above ground surface area of 6,400 m2 and another 3,870 m2 of space underground. They will house 51 two-, three- and four-bedroom homes (with surface areas of between 107 m2 and 160 m2), many storage rooms and 102 parking spaces. (…).

The homes

The price of the homes, which will be equipped with the highest quality materials and the latest innovations, will start at €370,000 for the two bedroom homes, increasing to €445,000 for the three-bedroom properties and up to €600,000 for the four-bedrooms apartments. Those amounts, which exclude VAT (10%), include two parking spaces per property and a storeroom.

In addition to these standard flats, the plans includes three penthouses, with 50 m2 terraces, located on the 16th, 18th and 19th floors, whose prices will range between €900,000 and just over €1,000,000. Given the characteristics of the development, its location and the views that these homes are going to enjoy thanks to their dual north-south orientation, the properties look set to become some of the most unique and exclusive in the capital. (…).

The tower will have a large communal garden terrace on the 11th floor, known as the Mirador del Río. (…). At street level, it will have a large garden with a swimming pool and space for urban allotments, whilst the top three floors will house a gym and other communal spaces. (…).

A lot of demand

Even though the features of the development have not been revealed yet (….), Neinor has a list of more than 750 people who are interested in acquiring the homes at Riverside Homes. “Most of the interested parties (70%) are people from the area, but we have also received a lot of interest from other people in the capital (…)”, said Ignacio Llona, Director of the Central Territory at Neinor Homes.

Original story: El Mundo (by Luis M. De Ciria)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sareb Sells 14,400m2 Plot Of Land In Madrid To Insur

12 December 2016 – La Opinión De Málaga

Sareb has sold a plot of land in Madrid measuring 14,400 m2 to the Andalucian real estate company Grupo Insur for the construction of a business park. The land is located on Paseo de los Melancólicos, close to the Manzanares River and inside the M-30 ring-road. With a buildable surface area of almost 27,000 m2, the plot has the capacity to house nine above ground floors, plus several underground parking floors, according to Sareb.

The operation, which has been conducted through Solvia, one of Sareb’s property managers, generates value from an asset located in an sought-after area, following the renovation of the Manzanares riverbank thanks to the Madrid Río operation.

“This asset is located next to the plots of land that form part of the Mahou-Calderón operation and is close to the Palacio de Oriente. It is well connected and is surrounded by an established urban network, which offers a wide variety of shops and services. The current sale comes in the context of the reactivation of the office segment, driven by a notable decrease in the availability of such assets, in particular in the primary markets of Madrid and Barcelona”, said the company. During the first six months of 2016, Sareb sold 625 plots of land across Spain, from both its own portfolio as well as from the balance sheets of its debtors. Most of these operations were closed in: Community of Valencia, Cataluña, Murcia and Andalucía.

Overall, during the first six months of the year, Sareb sold 5,590 properties (residential assets, land and tertiary properties) and recorded revenues of almost €1,400 million. 52.4% of those revenues were generated from the management of its loans and the remainder from the sale of both properties (26%) and loans (almost 20%).

Original story: La Opinión De Málaga

Translation: Carmel Drake

Political Uncertainty and Populism Threaten RE Recovery

1 June 2015 – El Economista

The electoral success of Manuela Carmena (Ahora Madrid) in Madrid and Ada Colau (Barcelona En Comú) in Barcelona has started to take its first victims in the real estate sector. Barely a week has passed since the elections and “some investors have already suspended deals to purchase property in Spain”, warn certain sources close to the negotiations.

The uncertainty regarding the possible political agreements has hit the property sector hard, “just when it was starting to recover”. In Madrid and Barcelona alone, large urban projects amounting to €14,000 million have already been called into question.

Major construction companies, financial institutions and large international funds are involved in these developments, including the Chinese magnate Wang Jianlin, who came to Spain with plans to invest around €4,000 million and who now see his real estate plans for the country being endangered.

“Right now, the sector is beginning a process of paralysis in certain segments. All of the investors are waiting for the possible political agreements to be settled so that they can carry out transactions”, explain sources in the sector.

“The is a great deal of uncertainty and considerable ungovernability in many cases, as well as expected increases in taxes and public spending, coupled with the suspension of forecast investments, which may result in the withdrawal of foreign capital”, they warn.

This situation may result in “an important step backwards for the emerging recovery”, given that it comes at a time when the real estate sector was really beginning to take off; record levels of investment were recorded last year. Before the elections, experts predicted that the level of transactions was going to continue (this year), but following recent events, “it is now very difficult to make forecasts”. These warnings coincide with others made this week by several important businessmen, such as the Chairman of OHL, Juan Miguel Villar Mir, who said that (political) groups such as Podemos put Spain’s economic recovery in danger. In a similar way, the markets have penalised the election results and the Ibex 35 recorded a loss of 2.91% last week.

(…)

The urban plans proposed by Carmena and Colau leave most of the major projects, both those already underway as well as those still to be awarded, up in the air. In Madrid, they endanger million-euro developments such as Operación Chamartín, the Madrid Río shopping centre, Operación Mahou-Calderón, the Canalejas complex, Operación Edificio España, la Ciudad de Justicia and even Operación Campamento.

Whilst in Barcelona, projects such as La Maquinista and Heron City shopping centres, the refurbishment of the Nou Camp and urban developments in the surrounding area, the ski slope in the free trade zone of Barcelona SnowWorld and the conversion into hotels of iconic buildings such as Torre Agbar, the Deutsche Bank building on Passeig de Gracia or Project Núñez i Navarro are also at risk.

(…)

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla and Javier Mesones)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Balkany To Open Plaza Río 2 Retail Park In Madrid In 2017

20 January 2015 – Cinco Días

Madrid will have a new shopping centre in 2017. The first one to be built in the heart of the capital for more than a decade. The Plaza Río 2 project will be built alongside the Madrid Río park, and will be developed by the company Sociedad General Inmobiliaria de España (LSGIE). The company is led by Robert de Balkany, a Romanian-French multi-millionaire, related by marriage to the European monarchy and a close friend of the former King Juan Carlos. One of the directors of LSGIE, Jaime de Marichalar, is the ex-husband of Elena de Borbón.

The shopping centre, which will be located on Calle Antonio López, less than four kilometres from the Puerta del Sol, will cover an area of 40,000 square metres, with 180 shops over three floors and more than 1,500 parking spaces.

LSGIE has mandated the company SCCE – a subsidiary of the French group SCC, also controlled by the Balkany family – to begin commercial work and look for businesses who want to open stores in Río Plaza 2. For the moment, it has managed to close a deal with its first illustrious tenant: Alcampo announced a few days ago that it will open a store in the new centre occupying an area of 5,000 square metres.

The most recent shopping centre to be opened in the central area of Madrid was the one located in the former Príncipe Pío train station (also next to the Manzanares river) in October 2004. Since then, only smaller centres have opened, such as the one recently opened on Paseo de la Castellana, 200 (which houses 6,000 square metres of retail space).

Over the last 10 years, during which time Spain has gone through the toughest economic crisis since the Civil War, only a handful of retail parks have been developed in the Community of Madrid, although some of those have also borne the stamp of Robert de Balknay. Such is the case of the Plaza Norte 2 complex – in Alcobendas – the largest shopping centre in Spain, covering 50,000 square metres, and most recently, Gran Plaza 2 – in Majadahonda – whose red tape was cut in 2012 by Robert de Balkany himself and the then President of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre.

Six shopping centres have been opened in the city of Madrid since 2004 (in Montecarmelo, Canillejas-Plenilunio, Manoteras, Carabanchel-Isla Azul and the Ensanche de Vallecas-La Gavia) according to data from the Spanish Association of Shopping Centres (Aedecc), but none of those are as central as the planned Plaza Río 2.

Project Canalejas

Another project that is also expected to open its doors in 2017 are the Galarías Canalejas, a luxury shopping centre, covering 7,000 square metres, being developed by Inmobiliaria Espacio and the OHL Group, just 250 metres from the Puerta del Sol.

Plaza Río 2 will be located directly opposite the Matadero Madrid, a group of buildings that have been renovated by the Town Hall in recent years to offer cultural activities (exhibitions, theatres, festivals…) and which has become a magnet for artists and creatives alike. In the area surrounding the capital’s new park, Madrid Río, a project known as Operation Calderón will also be taking shape, involving the demolition of Atlético de Madrid’s current football stadium and the construction of several residential towers.

The original project for the development of the site that will house Plaza Río 2 was approved by the Town Hall in June 2013 and involved the creation of a special urban development plan, which included the construction of a 27-story hotel on top of the shopping centre. However, sources from the company LSGIE say that the project that they have developed never included plans for the construction of that hotel.

The shopping centre’s developers value the location of this site due to its easy access from the M-30 ring road (which runs under the Madrid Río river park), as well as from the roads to Toledo (A-42) and Andalucía (A-4). The proximity of several popular neighbourhoods, such as Usera, Arganzuela, Carabanchel and Puente de Vallecas, has also played a role. According to SCCE’s calculations, 175,000 people live within five minutes of Río Plaza 2 and 500,000 people live within a radius of 10 minutes.

According to the designs for the project, the shopping centre will be directly accessible from the Madrid Río park. Just at that point, there is already a bridge that provides access to the facilities of the Matadero Madrid, the cultural centre Casa del Lector and the Palacio de Cristal-Invernadero de Arganzuela.

The Man Who Brought Us The Mall

The CEO of LSGIE and the SCC group, Robert de Balkany, was the person responsible for importing the concept of the shopping centre or mall from the United States to Europe. It was in 1962 when, after a trip around North America, this Romanian-born Frenchman decided to launch his business venture, which has led him to control the largest shopping centre conglomerate in Europe, with more than 120 properties. He developed his first centre – Parly 2 – in the metropolitan area of the French capital. It opened its doors in 1969. “When I returned from my trip to Detroit, I realised that shopping would never been the same again. The world had changed and consumers wanted service, comfort and activities”, explains Balkany in a corporate publication prepared for the 50th anniversary of the SCC group. “Design had been democratised. I had discovered some land in Chesnay, to the west of Paris, very close to Versailles, and I hired an American architect to join the adventure, to build the first shopping centre in Europe”. Then came Velizy2, Rosny2, Evry2, Ulis2, St Genis2…

Next came international expansion, into Spain, where the SCC group today manages 20 shopping centres, including La Vaguada (the first one opened in the country in 1983) and Plaza Norte 2 (the largest in Spain, with an investment of €300 million and where 2,500 people work). Then came Belgium, Italy, Monaco, Abu Dhabi…

Today, the empire built by Balkany manages 135 shopping centres around the world, with a turnover of €50 million and more than 500 employees.

Original story: Cinco Días (by M. M. Mendieta)

Translation: Carmel Drake