Torre Sevilla Shopping Centre to Open in September with 92% Occupancy Rate

20 July 2018 – Eje Prime

Torre Sevilla is getting ready to open with almost a full house. The complex in the city of Sevilla, which will open its doors in just two months time, has commercialised 92% of its space. In recent weeks, the managers of the complex have agreed the entry of several new operators.

In the field of fashion, H&M, Parfois and the jewellery chain Time Road are going to open stores in Torre Sevilla, following in the footsteps of other groups such as Primark, Mango, Women’s Secret, Springfield, Calzedonia and Foot Locker, amongst others.

The shopping centre has also announced the arrival of the supermarket chain Día, as well as several telecoms operators, including Movistar and Vodafone. The gastronomic offer is going to comprise companies such as Udon, Vips, La Tagliatella, Burger King and the bakery chain Granier.

The opening of the complex will complete the Torre Sevilla architectural project, in which CaixaBank has invested more than €320 million. In addition to a shopping centre, Torre Sevilla contains an office block, the Eurostars Torre Sevilla hotel, CaixaForum Sevilla and Magallanes Park.

Designed by the Argentinian architect César Pelli, the retail complex comprises two large buildings, which span a gross leasable area (GLA) of 26,700 m2 and a constructed surface area of 43,000 m2.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Primark to Open a Megastore in Barcelona’s Plaza Cataluña

12 July 2018 – Idealista

Primark is finally entering the centre of Barcelona. The low-cost fashion company is going to open a flagship store at number 23 Plaza Cataluña, in a building owned by the fund manager IBA Capital, according to confirmation from real estate sources speaking to Idealista News. Until now, the property has been occupied by the El Corte Inglés department store group, but now the Irish chain is going to take over the 7,393 m2 property.

IBA Capital acquired the building in 2013 for €100 million and, over the last six months, since it has been on the market, the asset has attracted attention from the main fashion groups in Europe, including H&M, Primark, Inditex and the Japanese firm Uniqlo.

The building has a gross leasable area of 7,393 m2 and is located at the junction of Plaza Cataluña and Las Ramblas, one of the new commercial thoroughfares in Barcelona following the opening of establishments by the Galician giant Inditex there, as well as by operators such as Mango, Apple and Urban Outfitters.

The building was leased in its entirety to El Corte Inglés until a few months ago, which operated it through a multi-brand concept with firms such as Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Guess, Diesel, Maje, Sandro, Stefanel and Desigual.

The property was renovated in 1998 and used to house the former headquarters of Banco Central and one of the only stores that the British firm Marks&Spencer used to have in Spain. Following the purchase by IBA Capital, El Corte Inglés and the fund signed a sale and leaseback contract, which expired in 2018.

IBA Capital in the Spanish market

Founded in 2013, IBA is led by Thierry Julienne and Jesús Valderrama, the founders of the investment vehicle. The fund manager has the capacity to manage all classes of real estate assets and its portfolio is currently worth €1 billion.

The portfolio comprises more than a dozen assets situated in first-rate locations in Madrid and Barcelona. Its properties include number 18 Gran Vía, number 9 Preciados and the ABC Serrano shopping centre, which have been acquired for subsequent renovation.

The other assets are office buildings including the property at number 96 Calle Santiago de Compostela, in Madrid and the Tripark Business Park, in las Rozas. Moreover, the fund owns the Vodafone Building, located at number 115 Avenida de América, and the Manoteras Leisure Park, also in the Spanish capital.

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

IBA Capital Creates a Fund to Invest up to €300M in Spain’s High Street

25 May 2018 – Eje Prime

IBA Capital is gaining strength as one of the investment funds with the most potential in the Spanish market. The company has just launched an investment fund specialising in the retail high street segment, through which it plans to invest up to €300 million in the purchase of commercial assets located on the main streets (high streets) of Spain’s secondary cities, according to Thierry Julienne, founder of the investment vehicle, speaking to Eje Prime.

This new vehicle from IBA Capital will bet on buying commercial premises on streets such as Calle Larios in Málaga and Calle Tetuán in Sevilla, for example. Also on IBA Capital’s radar are assets located in cities such as Valencia, Santander, Coruña, Oviedo and Vigo, amongst others.

“We want to create a portfolio of prime assets – we are not looking for properties to create value, but rather buildings are profitable with operators such as H&M, Mango and chains from the Inditex group as tenants”, explains Julienne, who also added that the stores that may interest the fund should have a surface area of around 1,000 m2.

“It is a safe fund, which has been created with an investment capacity of €100 million, but which may reach €300 million over the next few years”, he says. The type of investor to which this new vehicle from IBA Capital will be directed are “conservative and Spanish”, explains the director. “Family offices, for example, are target investors of this new fund”, he concludes. (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Deutsche Bank Acquires L’Aljub Shopping Centre in Elche for €170M

8 May 2018 – Expansión

Deutsche Bank is increasing its commitment to the Spanish retail sector by adding the L’Aljub shopping centre in Elche to its portfolio of assets in Spain.

Specifically, the German bank has signed an agreement with the fund Seva (Southern European Value-Add Mandate), managed by TH Real Estate for the investors TPG Real Estate – the real estate platform of the international manager TPG – and Partners Group, for €170 million.

The operation has been advised by the consultancy firm Cushman & Wakefield, which has worked with the vendor, whilst CBRE has advised on the buy side.

With this acquisition, the entity is strengthening its position in the commercial sector in the country. In August 2016, Deutsche Bank purchased the Diagonal Mar shopping centre from Northwood for €495 million. That operation was the second largest transaction ever closed in the shopping centre sector in Spain, after the purchase of Xanadú.

Moreover, Trajano – the Socimi managed by Deutsche Bank – purchased the Alcalá Magna shopping centre from Incus Capital for just over €100 million at the beginning of last year. In addition, the firm also owns the Salera shopping centre in Castellón de la Plana.

The L’Aljub shopping centre was inaugurated in 2003 and spans more than 60,000 m2, spread over two floors and with a large underground car park.

Besides the commercial and leisure offering, L’Aljub is home to an Eroski hypermarket on the ground floor.

Specifically, the shopping centre contains 120 shops and has 3,200 parking spaces. Its most high-profile tenants include Inditex, H&M, Primark, Mango and Cines ABC.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Carmila Buys Gran Vía de Hortaleza Shopping Centre in Madrid from Klépierre

5 February 2018 – Eje Prime

Carrefour is expanding its project to increase the value of the shopping centres adjacent to its hypermarkets in Spain. Carmila, the management vehicle created by the French food group, has paid €212 million for a portfolio of two complexes, including the Gran Vía de Hortaleza shopping centre in Madrid. The other asset acquired by the company is the Gran Vitrolles shopping centre, located in Marseille (France).

Gran Via de Hortaleza was opened in 1992 and is located in the northeast of the Spanish capital. The complex spans two floors and is home to a Carrefour hypermarket measuring 10,950 m2, ranked as one of the brand’s five largest stores in Spain. Moreover, Gran Vía de Hortaleza has 69 stores spread over a surface area of 6,300 m2 and outdoor space for 1,700 parking spaces.

Each year, the centre receives 6.3 million visitors and it has a penetration rate of 54% in the area in which it is located, according to Business Inmo. Companies that have a store in Gran Vía de Hortaleza include Mango, Promod, Okaidi, Calzedonia, Primor, Fosco, Rodilla, 100 Montaditos, Alain Afflelou and Burger King, amongst others.

Carmila’s objective with this shopping centre is to renovate it and convert it into a “family space”, as reported by the company, which is seeking, amongst other aspects, to improve the occupancy rate of the complex from its current value of 92.7%.

The other shopping centre acquired by Carrefour’s real estate manager is Grand Vitrolles. Located in Marseille, it is a large retail complex with 84 stores spread over a surface area of 24,530 m2 and a Carrefour hypermarket measuring 20,500 m2.

Outside, that shopping centre has parking with capacity for 4,709 vehicles. Carmila will expand the complex by 11,700 m2 to increase the number of stores to 130 units.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Mango’s Owner Sells H&M Store in Burgos for €12.6M

11 January 2018 – Eje Prime

The property will continue to be occupied by H&M after the operation. The Swedish retailer leases the 3,000 m2 building, which Mango purchased at the end of the economic crisis for €8 million.

Mutualidad General de Abogacía is adding new assets to its property portfolio. The company has acquired the building that houses the flagship store of the Swedish giant H&M in Burgos for €12.6 million, according to sources close to the operation. Until now, the property had formed part of the portfolio of Punto Na, the real estate company owned by the businessman Isak Andic, founder of the Catalan fashion chain Mango.

The property has a retail surface area of 3,000 m2, spread over four floors. The operation, which has been brokered by the real estate consultants Torit Allocation and Otto Capital, will allow Mutualidad General de Abogacía to fatten up its collection of retail assets, which account for 30% of the group’s total portfolio. Following the acquisition, the fashion chain H&M will continue to operate in the store, whereby guaranteeing the Mutua de los Abogados a profitable long-term tenant.

The building is located on the corner of number 1 Plaza de Santo Domingo and number 2 Calle Moneda, and has a façade measuring 66 m. The store is located next to several Inditex and Mango shops, as well as a large El Corte Inglés department store.

Punta Na acquired the building at the end of the economic crisis for €8 million. Until then, the building had been occupied by the historical Caja de Ahorros Municipal de Burgos (…).

In recent years, the owner of Mango has been growing his portfolio of assets by buying up retail premises. Although the businessman’s real estate company is Punto Na, Andic also operates in the retail sector with Punto Fa, which is the company through which he operates Mango.

Thus, like Amancio Ortega has done with Pontegadea, the founder of the Catalan fashion chain, owned assets worth €1.329 billion in 2016 and his objective was to continue to increase his portfolio by acquiring retail premises to lease them to large fashion retailers, which tend to sign long-term lease contracts (…).

The lawyers’ mutual society, a not-for-profit organisation that offers investment solutions for legal professionals, owns a large portfolio of properties all over Spain. The entity has 44 assets under management, spanning a total surface area of 271,816 m2, of which 89% are occupied by tenants (rental arrangements).

By type of assets, 53% of the portfolio comprises offices, 20% hotels, and the remaining 27% is split between retail premises, nursing homes, industrial assets and parking lots.

In terms of the geographical distribution, most of the portfolio’s real estate assets are located in the Community of Madrid, specifically, 29 assets. The other properties are located in Barcelona, where it owns 4 assets; plus it has around ten more buildings in Alicante, Almería, Bilbao, Granada, Málaga, Salamanca, Santander, Sevilla, Lérida, Valladolid and Vigo.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

C&W: 876,000 m2 of Logistics Space was Leased in Madrid in 2017

9 January 2018 -Eje Prime

The logistics sector is starting 2018 with a bang. The industrial sector is soaring, after breaking records last year, with the leasing of 876,000 m2 of space in Madrid, its strongest location. That figure represents an increase of 80% with respect to 2016 and is the highest recorded in the last decade, exceeding even the 800,000 m2 of space that was leased in 2007, according to data from the real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield.

Similarly, the number of operations signed in relation to the purchase of warehouses and logistics centres amounted to 66, whereby exceeding the 50 recorded in 2016, and the average size of the surface area leased was 15,000 m2.

The areas bordering the A-2 and the A-4 were the most sought-after, as reflected by the influence that they had on the total volume of space leased in Madrid as a whole: the first area accounted for 60% of all operations, whilst assets located along the road to Valencia accounted for another 26% of transactions.

That significant increase in the sale of logistics land also resulted in a rise in prime rents. 2017 closed with an average price per square metre of €5.25/m2.

Meanwhile, in Barcelona, 450,000 m2 of logistics space was leased during 2017, which represents a decrease compared to 2016 when 645,000 m2 of space was leased, primarily because two large operations were registered during that year, with the arrival of Amazon and Mango, which incorporated warehouses with surface areas of 200,000 m2.

In the Catalan capital, by contrast, prime rents rose by 12.5%. The latest data shows an average price per square metre of logistics space of €6.25/m2 in the Mediterranean city. That rate is the highest of any of the capital cities in Southern Europe and is one of the highest on the continent. London is still the most expensive enclave for leasing warehouses and logistics centres with a price per square metre of around €15/m2.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sareb Sells Parque Corredor Shopping Centre to Redevco & Ares

2 January 2018 – El Confidencial

In the end, there will be a sale. Sareb has managed to reach an agreement with Redevco and Ares to sell them the Parque Corredor shopping centre, in an operation that is expected to be closed within the next few days, according to sources familiar with the transaction. This deal will fire the starting gun for the complete transformation of the Madrilenian shopping centre.

As El Confidencial revealed, the entity chaired by Jaime Echegoyen had joined forces with Perella to complete one of the operations that has been on Sareb’s desk for the longest, but which has never ended up being signed (until now) for various reasons, including the dispersed shareholding of Parque Corredor and the divergent interests of those shareholders.

The sum of Sareb and Perella’s forces guaranteed that Redevco and Ares would take a majority stake in the shopping centre, given that the former holds 40% of the share capital and the latter holds 20%. But, more support was always needed to enable it to undertake a complete transformation and whereby compete with the neighbouring Open Sky, a shopping centre that is currently being constructed just four kilometres away.

In the end, both El Corte Inglés, the owner of just under 4% of Parque Corredor, which has an outlet store there, and Alcampo, owner of just over 20%, have decided to join the sale initiated by Sareb, according to the same sources (…).

The offer from Redevco and Ares values the whole centre at around €200 million, an amount that will be added to the planned investment of €20 million required to renovate the centre. The renovation project that has been entrusted to the Chapman Taylor studio.

Parque Corredor is a shopping centre giant with a retail surface area of 123,000 m2 and 180 stores, located in the Madrilenian town of Torrejón de Ardoz. Its tenants include the Spanish firm Mango, the Swedish retailer H&M, the Irish firm Primark and the French retailer Kiabi, all direct rivals of Zara.

This shopping centre went through its toughest time four years ago when Inditex decided to vacate because of the poor upkeep of the complex. Nevertheless, in recent times, confidence in the centre has been returning, with some of the retail group’s brands opening stores there, such as Bershka, Pimkie and Stradivarius. To date, there is no sign of the flagship brand Zara returning just yet.

Sareb has been advised in the operation by Knight Frank, Perella has received the services of Cushman & Wakefield, whilst Redevco and Ares have been working with Deloitte.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Basque Family Office Invivas Sells Prime Retail Store in Bilbao

12 December 2017 – Eje Prime

A new operation has been signed in the heart of Bilbao. The Basque family office Invivas, which is backed by the family of Sabino Arrieta Heras, has sold a shop in the heart of the Basque city to Grupo Arenal. The purchaser is a family office specialising in investment in real estate assets and the owner of the Arenal perfume chain, according to explanations provided by the company to Eje Prime. The operation has been brokered by the real estate consultancy firm Catella.

Grupo Arenal, which did not want to disclose the amount of the operation, could have paid around €6 million for the asset. The property is located at number 3 Calle Navarra and its façade is more than 70m long. The store is located between the retail thoroughfares of Gran Vía, Rodríguez Arias and Ercilla.

It is a strategic location, which, as well as being home to the country’s major fashion retailers, such as El Corte Inglés, Inditex and Mango, is expecting to welcome a new Primark store soon; moreover, a high-speed train station is being built in the vicinity.

The space was the former main branch of Banesto in Bilbao and has a total surface area of 2,500 m2, spread over three floors. The first floor measures 777 m2, the ground floor spans 841 m2 and the basement has a surface area of 881 m2.

With this sale, Grupo Invivas, led by the former number two of the Basque Government’s Home Office (…) is divesting in the heart of Bilbao. This family office has been starring in real estate operations for several years, especially in the País Vasco, but also in the international market.

Its most recent purchases include a retail store in Miami, through Invivas Miami Real Estate, for €5.2 million (…). Four years ago, in the summer of 2013, it launched its operations in Germany with the purchase of a 1,000 m2 building in Frankfurt, used as offices and retail space, for €7 million (…).

The retail sector is thriving in the País Vasco  

One of the most active segments in Bilbao in recent months has been retail, as a result of the improvement in consumption. The activity in terms of new arrivals in the city has been led by domestic fashion brands, which have accounted for 44% of the new movements, followed by accessories firms (23%) and specialist brands (19%), according to a study compiled by the real estate consultancy firm CBRE (…).

The situation is similar in San Sebastián, where major groups such as Fnac and Zara have now arrived in the Mercado de San Martín; moreover, Pull&Bear, Mango and Violeta have set up shop in the former Kutxabank building (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Meridia Buys Barnasud Shopping Centre For €35M

9 November 2017 – Expansión 

Meridia Capital has purchased the Barnasud shopping centre, located in Gavà, 20km from Barcelona. The operation, which was signed yesterday, was completed for a consideration of €35 million.

The complex was previously owned by Unibail Rodamco, which is continuing with its strategy to divest its least strategic assets, by location and volume, to focus on its largest properties, which represent the main business of the European shopping centre giant.

The French-Dutch group continues to own three other first-rate shopping centres in Barcelona – La Maquinista, Splau and Glòries– and fifteen shopping centres across the whole of Spain. Unibail has been advised by Cushman & Wakefield. Meanwhile, Meridia manages assets with a combined value of almost €1,000 million and has consolidated its presence in the country over the last three years.

Barnasud was inaugurated in 1995 and houses 43 stores, 13 restaurants and a seven-screen cinema. Its fashion establishments include Mango, Macson and Springfield. None of the brands from the Inditex group has a presence in the centre. The restaurant area includes operators such as McDonald’s, Burger King and Hollywood, and the multi-screen cinema is operated by Cinesa.

The President of Meridia Capital, Javier Faus, revealed that the company was on the verge of closing a purchase in the retail sector on Tuesday at the Economy Circle, as proof that the fund still has faith in the Catalan market. Faus, which will have to start to divest the assets held by one of Meridia’s funds in 2018, said that “the task of educating institutional investors is very important”. In his opinion, “the current situation in Cataluña is reversible and everything will improve if the right decisions are made”.

Original story: Expansión (by M. Anglés and R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake