Tag: Megapark Barakaldo shopping centre

Lar Spends €6M on Renovation of Megapark Barakaldo Shopping Centre

10 April 2018 – Eje Prime

Lar is giving one of its assets a makeover. The Socimi owned by the Lar España group has started work on the complete renovation of the Megapark Barakaldo shopping centre, for the first time since its construction in 2004, which will involve an investment of €6 million, according to a statement issued by the group.

The shopping centre, which is owned by Lar España Real Estate Socimi, has been managed by Neinver since 2016. Neinver, which is directing the renovation work, is one of the leaders in the development and management of outlet centres in Spain and the second largest operator in Europe.

The renovation of Megapark is going to be carried out in two phases. Firstly, work will be undertaken in the retail space; this has already begun, without affecting the daily activity of the centre, and is due to be completed in November 2018. Subsequently, work will begin on the leisure area to modernise and unify its image with the rest of the park.

“During this first phase, the renovation of Megapark Barakaldo’s retail area will be reflected primarily in a more current image, which is going to be accompanied by the renovation of all of the façades, outdoor spaces and common areas”, explain sources at the group. For this, an urbanisation plan has been developed, which includes introducing urban design furniture and children’s areas.

The general remodelling of the centre is also being accompanied by the renovation of some of the retail stores such as those of Mediamarkt, Kiabi, Merkal and Forum, as well as the expansion of the Conforama store by 1,200 m2 to reach 6,200 m2.

Megapark Barakaldo is located fifteen minutes from the centre of Bilbao and is the only retail and leisure area of its kind in a 400 km radius. In 2017, it received more than 10 million visitors and it has a surface area of 128,000 m2.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Project Gaudí: Oaktree Acquires Reduced Portfolio For €260M

25 June 2015 – CoStar Finance

Oaktree Capital Management has finalised the purchase of a reduced non-performing loan portfolio from FMS Wertmanagement (Project Gaudi) paying around €260m in cash, after a back bid sale of a Bilbao shopping centre to Grupo Lar and the removal of two loans prior to transaction close.

According to CoStar News, Grupo Lar, the Spanish developer and investor, has acquired the 1.35m sq ft Megapark Barakaldo shopping centre in Bilbao, in a back to back bid for just over €150 million.

Megapark Barakaldo was previously owned by Resolution Property, who acquired the retail centre for more than €200 million in January 2006, from Arcona Iberia and its joint venture partners, financed by Hypo Real Estate Bank International and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Resolution Property sold Megapark Barakaldo to another investor in 2012, which inherited the encumbered debt.

In addition, FMS Wertmanagement removed two loans from the original €735 million portfolio, contraining 18 NPL loans (Project Gaudi):

1) The first was a loan securing the circa 333,700 sq ft Plaza Éboli shopping centre in Pinto in the south of Madrid. HIG Capital recently acquired Plaza Éboli from Doughty Hanson, the UK private equity firm, for €30m, repaying the loan back to FMS Wertmanagement at par.

2) The second was a combined €125 millioin investment, development and VAT financing facility, granted to Bluespace, formerly known as Blue Self Storage, in July 2007. It was used to fund the acquisition of 17 self-storage properties – in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia. FMS Wertmanagement has retained that non-performing loan.

These two removed loans are thought to account for an unpaid loan balance of around €100 million in aggregate. This reduces the original nominal value of Project Gaudi’s NPL portfolio (€735 million) to an unpaid balance of €635 million.

CoStar News understands that Oaktree paid €410m for the slightly slimmer Project Gaudi, reflecting a discount of 35.4%.

Furthermore, the immediate back bid purchase of Megapark Barakaldo by Grupo Lar for circa €150 millions implies the net price that Oaktree paid was €260 million, which was likely paid on an all-cash basis by Oaktree given the final size of the deal.

FMS Wertmanagement closed the sale of Project Gaudi with Oaktree two weeks ago. This was the German bad bank’s maiden NPL portfolio sale in Europe.

CoStar News understands that FMS Wertmanagement is considering two further country-focused loan portfolio sales for the bad bank’s Netherlands and Italian sub and non-performing loans. (…)

Original story: CoStar Finance (by James Wallace)

Edited by: Carmel Drake