Bankinter Acquires Primark’s Future Flagship Store in Barcelona

18 November 2019 – Zambal, a socimi managed by IBA Capital Partners, has sold the future Primark flagship store at Plaça de Cataluyna 23, in Las Ramblas, Barcelona, to a group of Spanish investors led by Bankinter.

The company sold an 89% stake in Trébol Core Properties, the company that owns the asset, for 71 million euros. IBA Capital Partners will continue to manage both the property and the company.

Primark expects to open the store early next year.

Original Story: Idealista

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

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

Leroy Merlin Will Arrive in Madrid’s Centre in 2018 after an Investment of Nearly €5 million

25 June 2017 – Expansión

The company will open a store on Madrid’s retail ‘golden mile’, taking over a space that was vacated by Cortefiel.

Leroy Merlin will land in Madrid’s centre in the first quarter of 2018, after investing nearly five million euros in a 2,500-square-meter commercial area that will generate 100 jobs, according to a statement by the company.

The DIY retail chain is thus following in the footsteps of other multinationals such as Ikea and Media Markt, which have been opting to create presences in the centres of major cities.

The company’s first urban store in Madrid will be located on Raimundo Fernández Villaverde 43-45, taking advantage of the fashion company Cortefiel’s sale of one of its flagship stores, on Madrid’s golden mile.

Leroy Merlin Spain’s director of development, Juan Sevillano, highlighted the importance of the opening. “This store in the city centre follows on the heels of another announcement, a few weeks ago, of a new store in the centre of Barcelona and the recently opened store in Vigo, which is also located in the centre of the city,” he noted, regarding the company’s decision to position itself in city centres.

“This strategy is the result of Leroy Merlin’s constant attention to the changing needs of its consumers, who are demanding closer geographical proximity,” he explained.

Leroy Merlin plans to continue opening stores in city centres after opening the stores in Madrid and Barcelona. “The company intends to look for other locations in the centres of other major Spanish cities,” Sevillano stressed.

Job creation

The new store will create approximately 70 direct and 30 indirect jobs and will specialise in projects and decoration, offering its consumers more than 10,000 items for sale.

Leroy Merlin Madrid will join the other nine points of sale that the company currently has in the region. This inauguration is part of the firm’s 2017-2021 expansion plan, in which it expects to open 31 stores in Spain, in an investment of more than 608 million euros.

The French multinational closed 2016 with an increase in net profits of 5.02%, to 93.18 million euros. Leroy Merlin also set a new sales record in the year, reaching 1,931 million euros, 8.6% more than in 2015.

Original Story: Expansión / Europa Press

Translation: Richard Turner

Deutsche Bank Invests €32M On Complete Renovation Of Diagonal Mar

22 September 2017 – Eje Prime

Deutsche Bank is subjecting one of its star assets in Spain to a facelift. The company is going to invest €32 million on the comprehensive renovation of a shopping centre that it purchased last year for €493 million, according to Isabel Bofill, the manager of the complex, speaking to EjePrime (…)

“In accordance with the needs of the market, we have decided to cut the cinema space in half and add an extra 5,000 m2 to retail”, explains Bofill. The complex is already immersed in the construction work and has all of the permits necessary for this new area of the shopping centre to start to take shape.

“It has taken us several years to get to this point, to give the shopping centre a facelift, but Deutsche Bank’s commitment to position Diagonal Mar (in the market) is real”, says Bofill. The first phase of this construction project will involve converting the third floor of the complex, which has been used only for leisure until now, into another floor for retail, together with restaurants and cinemas (…).

Although the decision regarding how many new stores will be created as a result of the construction work has yet to be taken, Bofill says that one of the objectives of this renovation is to respond to the current needs of retail: the megastores. “A shopping centre has to be in constant movement: when an operator disappears, it is not bad, it is simply the end of a phase”.

Bofill was referring to the departure of Fnac from Diagonal Mar, which is due to leave shortly, whereby freeing up 3,900 m2 of space for new players (…).

The comprehensive renovation of Diagonal Mar is expected to be completed by next June. To this end, Deutsche Bank has also committed to carrying out a rebranding of the whole complex and to a general overhaul of the whole centre. “We are going to change the lighting, the floors, the rest areas…we want it to be a completely new commercial thoroughfare”, explains the director.

Perhaps one of the most ambitious proposals at Diagonal Mar, which increased its footfall by 2.5% last year to 17.1 million visitors, is its plan to change the whole façade of the property. “It is old and if we want to project a younger image and appeal to new consumers, we have to make way for a guise that belongs in the 21st century”, explains the director.

Diagonal Mar is currently managed by the real estate consultancy firm CBRE.

Diagonal Mar was designed by Jean-Louis Solal and Robert A.M. Stern and inaugurated in 2001. Located next to the 22@ district in Barcelona, the shopping centre has a gross leasable area of approximately 90,000 m2 and its tenants include brands such as Alcampo, Cinesa, Media Markt, Primark, H&M and the Inditex Group.

Deutsche Bank acquired Diagonal Mar through its real estate arm in Spain, Deutsche Asset Management (Deutsche AM) (…), which has assets under management worth €1,300 million.

The company’s portfolio in the Iberian Peninsula currently comprises 17 real estate assets, specifically: seven shopping centres; seven office buildings; and three logistics assets, with a combined gross leasable area of 420,000 m2 (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by C. Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lidl To Invest €200M In Spain In 2015

6 March 2015 – Expansión

The supermarket chain Lidl is planning to invest €200 million in Spain during 2015, the highest annual figure since it entered the Iberian market 20 years ago. Some of this investment will be used to finance the opening of 40 new stores, twice as many as in 2014.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Celio Plans To Open 10 New Stores In Spain In 2015

20 February 2015 – Modaes

The French menswear company Celio is looking for new opportunities in the Spanish market with a clear message from the group’s head office: generate profitability. The company, which closed 2014 with sixty stores in Spain, has set an overall goal of generating profits in all of the countries in which it has a presence. In the context of the chain’s development in Spain, Celio will open ten new stores this year, mainly using the franchise formula; it is also looking for new opportunities in Madrid and Barcelona, where it wants to open two flagship stores before the end of 2015.

Celio was created in France in 1982 by the siblings Marc and Lauren Grossmen; the pair also own the womenswear chain Jennyfer. The company, which currently has a distribution network of more than 1,200 stores across 65 countries, opened its first outlets in Spain in 1985, although it was not until the year 2000 when the company created a subsidiary in the country, led by Abel Núñez, from Adolfo Domínguez.

The Spanish branch of Celio, which has a distribution network comprising 60 stores in Spain, closed 2014 (on 31 January 2015) with sales of €42.7 million, an increase of 4.2% on the previous year.

“The message from head office is that the mantra for the global business is: generate profitability in all of its stores”, explains Antonio Pirruccio, Head of Expansion at Celio in Spain. “To achieve this, we have hired a new Head of Stores for the Spanish subsidiary, who will be in charge of budgets, analysis and sales forecasts by product family for Celio’s stores in Spain”.

Celio, which recently appointed Guillaume Motte, from Jennyfer, as the new Chairman of the group, says that Spain is its third largest market in terms of turnover. “This year we have increased our contribution to total revenues, so we can see that the chain is working well in this market” adds Pirruccio.

Last year, the company launched a new strategy for the Spanish market, focused on the opening of flagship stores on the country’s main (high) streets. The chain opened a store on Gran Vía in Bilbao last June, in premises that previously housed the womenswear chain Blanco and has a retail surface area of 300 square metres.

Celio has also launched a process to search for premises to open flagship stores on Gran Vía, in Madrid, on Paseo de Gracia or in Portal de l’Angel in Barcelona, and in the south of Spain, where Celio is considering opening stores in Malaga and Sevilla.

“Another goal at the group level is the reorganisation of Celio’s portfolio of stores in all of its countries (of operation), which is why we are currently renegotiating rents and relocating shops that are not profitable”, explains Pirruccio. Celio plans to open ten stores in Spain, of which at least eight will be franchises.

Original story: Modaes

Translation: Carmel Drake