Tag: Moraleja Green

Moraleja Green Gets a Makeover with 19 New Stores

7 March 2019 – Expansión

Moraleja Green, the shopping centre located in Alcobendas, in north  Madrid, saw its visitor numbers increase by 12% in Q4 2018, following the completion of a €12 million renovation project by its owner Kennedy Wilson. The US fund purchased the shopping centre, which has a surface area of 30,200 m2 and 1,300 parking spaces, from ING in 2015. Following its renovation, the medium-high end retail space opened 14 new stores last year and will welcome five more in 2019, with brands such as Mango, Dolores Promesas, Scalpers Women, Poete and Parfois all opening premises.

Shopping centres in Spain are enjoying something of a renaissance, despite the surge in online shopping. They offer consumers a plethora of in-person entertainment options besides retail, including gastronomic, leisure and sports facilities.

In particular, Moraleja Green’s renovation has allowed it to expand its gastronomic offering to include Tierra Burrito, Pizza Jardin and NYB restaurants, amongst others. The shopping centre also offers charging points for electric vehicles and access to wifi throughout its premises.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

CBRE GI Puts Berceo Shopping Centre (Logroño) Up For Sale

25 October 2017 – Expansión

Real estate activity involving shopping centres is proving unstoppable. The fund manager CBRE Global Investors (CBRE GI) has hung the “for sale” sign up over the Berceo shopping centre, located in Logroño (La Rioja) and has engaged the consultancy firm CBRE to look for potential buyers for the asset. The shopping centre, which opened its doors in November 2003, is worth around €105 million, according to explanations provided by market sources to Expansión.

Berceo has a gross leasable area of 34,072 m2 and more than 2,600 parking spaces. The shopping centre recorded sales of €62 million in 2016, up by 9% compared to the previous year, and closed the year with 6.1 million visitors, up by 0.12% YoY. Its tenants include a number of Inditex brands, such as Zara and Pull&Bear, as well as Primark, El Corte Inglés and Media Markt. Moreover, Berceo has a Yelmo cinema and restaurant space with operators such as Foster’s Hollywood and Burger King.

With this operation, the manager is taking advantage of investors’ interest in the retail segment and, specifically, in shopping centres, to finish liquidating the portfolio of assets it inherited as a result of its acquisition of the European business of ING Real Estate, the Dutch bank’s property arm, in 2011.

Real estate investment in shopping centres amounted to a record-breaking €3,700 million in Spain in 2016. So far this year, €2,300 million has been invested in these types of assets.

Divestments

As part of that divestment strategy, CBRE GI sold off the Urbil shopping centre in Guipúzcoa and half of the Asturias Parque Principado shopping centre in 2013 – the other half was owned by Sonae Sierra. A year later, it sold Gran Vía de Vigo, Moraleja Green and Alcalá Magna, the latter two are located in Madrid.

In parallel, CBRE GI has been very active on the buy-side in recent months. Specifically, in May, the company acquired 70% of the H2O Rivas shopping centre – located in Rivas-Vaciamadrid (Madrid)– from Alpha Real Trust, which retained the remaining 30% stake. Beyond the shopping centre sector, in September, the manager teamed up with AXA IM Real Assets to purchase the student hall of residence company Grupo Resa.

The manager has approximately €3,100 million in assets under management in Spain and Portugal. Twenty of those assets are shopping centres.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Kennedy Wilson Buys ‘Moraleja Green’ From ING

2 November 2015 – Expansión

Another shopping centre is changing hands barely a year after it was last sold. Later this week, the Moraleja Green shopping centre in Madrid, will have a new owner, twelve months after being acquired by the Dutch bank ING.

The financial institution, which purchased the property through one of its real estate funds, has decided to transfer ownership of the building to the US fund Kennedy Wilson. According to sources in the sector, ING will receive between €70 million and €75 million for the Madrilenian centre, which it acquired for €68 million in November 2014. This increase reflects the on-going appreciation in real estate assets in Spain, particularly for offices and shopping centres.

Cushman & Wakefield and Dentons have advised the buyer in the operation, whilst Deloitte and DLA Piper have advised on the sell-side. The agreement between both parties is absolute and will be announced officially this week.

The shopping centre is located in the northeast of Madrid, next to the exclusive La Moraleja urbanisation. It occupies a surface area of 76,763 m2 and 29,600 m2 is used for retail space. The centre’s main tenants include the supermarket chain Sánchez Romero, Inditex – with its brands Zara, Massimo Dutti and Oysho – and H&M.

The Moraleja Green centre was inaugurated in April 1995. Its developers were the real estate companies Metrovacesa and BBV Inmobiliario. It was expanded in 2001 and receives 3.38 million visitors (per year), according to the Spanish Association of Shopping Centres.

The new owner is the US fund Kennedy Wilson. The North American firm has been one of the most active players in Spain the most in recent months. Its latest operations include the purchase of 16 retail spaces, nine supermarkets and seven shops, leased to Carrefour and Día. It paid the fund AEW Europe and a French institutional investor €85.5 million for that portfolio.

The wider market

As a result of this deal, Moraleja Green will join the list of shopping centres that have changed hands during 2015, which also includes Plenilunio, acquired by Klépierre for €375 million, and Zielo Shopping, bought by UBS for €70 million.

Another shopping centre that has changed hands twice in just over a year is Parque Ceuta. A few months ago, the Brazilian group Hemisferio bought the Ceuta-based centre from the fund HIG for €26 million. The US fund had acquired it in January 2014 for €18 million.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Objects Of Desire: 16 Shopping Centres Up For Sale

14 May 2015 – Expansión

Between January to March (2015), funds and Socimis have invested €988 million in the purchase of large shopping establishments; and that figure that could reach €2,500 million for 2015 as a whole.

The 682 shopping centres in operation in Spain have become objects of desire for all investors interested in the Spanish real estate market. Thus, between January and March, these investors spent €988 million on the purchase of all kinds of shopping centres. “In January 2014, institutional investors did not want to purchase in Spain and now we have a very wide range of buyers: from institutions, which do not mind paying more for a good property, to opportunistic funds”, explains Vitor Pacheca, Senior Consultant of Retail Capital Markets at JLL España.

Last year, the Spanish market was the fourth favourite in Europe for investors interested in shopping centres and retail parks, with transactions as significant as Puerto Venecia in Zaragoza, which the British group Intu purchased for €451 million, having purchased Parque Principado in Asturias in 2013. Those are not the only real estate projects being pursued by the British real estate firm in Spain; it is currently developing two (shopping) centres, one in Malaga and the other in Valencia.

The most high profile case in 2015 has been Plenilunio. The Madrilenian property was acquired by the French operator Klépierre for €375 million on 17 March. The As Termas shopping centre in Lugo also changed hands; it was purchased by the Socimi Lar España. And AireSur in Sevilla was acquired by the fund CBRE Global Investors. “Last year, 28 (shopping) centres were bought and sold, representing a total investment volume of €3,200 million. In 2015, we expect that more centres will be sold but for a smaller total amount, around €2,500 million”, says Pacheco.

Although the flurry of transactions is not expected until the final quarter of the year, several shopping centres are scheduled to change owner shortly. “There are around 16 shopping centres for sale in Spain at the moment. We estimate that as many as 30 such assets may change hands between now and the end of the year”, say sources at JLL.

Doughty’s centres

That is the case of El Rosal in León and Plaza Éboli (pictured above) in Pinto (Madrid). The private equity firm Doughty Hanson is finalising the sale of those two properties, whose ownership will be transferred over the next few weeks.

The Plaza Éboli shopping centre, which was opened in 2005 and measures 62,000 m2, will be acquired by the US investor HIG for €30 million. In the case of El Rosal, which measures 151,000 m2, the new owner will be the Socimi Lar España, which has already purchased other shopping centres such as L’Anec Blau in Castelldefels (Barcelona) and Albacenter in Albacete. The Socimi will pay €90 million for El Rosal.

Another one of the 16 shopping centres up for sale is Moraleja Green in Alcobendas (Madrid). The property is on the market again after it was sold to ING by CBRE Global Investors last year. Now, the real estate division of the Dutch bank is putting it up for sale, after paying €68 million.

The Heron City shopping centre in Barcelona is also up for sale; it opened in 2011 and occupies a surface area of 101,000 m2, of which 36,358 m2 is dedicated to retail space.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake