Nuñez I Navarro Restores Former Panrico Factory In Barcelona

25 September 2017 – Mis Naves

The former Panrico factory, the company’s distribution centre for the whole of Barcelona, is coming back to life. Núñez I Navarro has recovered the building and has restored it for industrial use.

The building is distributed over five floors: two are allocated for parking, two for industrial use and one floor for offices and a terrace. To cover logistics needs, it has two hoists, loading docks, two lifts, storerooms and 136 parking spaces. Moreover, it also offers open plan spaces with several bathrooms and changing rooms on each floor, as well as fire detectors, concrete floors and a stone floor on the second level.

The property is located in Calle Binéfar in Barcelona, in the Sant Martí district of the city, and is equipped with all of the facilities of a large conurbation: restaurants, shops, supermarkets, sports facilities and schools, as well as excellent transport connections with the rest of the city by metro (La Pau, L2 and L4) and bus (Lines 33, 36,143, B23 and H10). Moreover, the site is also accessible from the Ronda Litoral (exit 24) and is just two minutes from Rambla Prim.

Altogether, the property has a total surface area of 14,857 m2, although its distribution means that the property could be divided into two completely independent and identical buildings. As such, in the event that a smaller surface area was required, two spaces measuring around 7,500 m2 each could be created. For the Marketing Director at Núñez I Navarro, Daniel Zafra, the building “represents an excellent opportunity for companies with logistics requirements that typically find themselves outside of the urban nucleus and which can now enjoy the benefits of a city such as Barcelona”.

Original story: Mis Naves

Translation: Carmel Drake

Mazabi Acquires Hotel Madrid & Teatro Albéniz

29 January 2016 – El Confidencial

Knowing how to combine business with respect for our national heritage. That has been the key that has enabled Mazabi to acquire Hotel Madrid and the historical Teatro Albéniz, an asset that the Community of Madrid had decided to protect as a Property of National Interest (“Bien de Interés Patrimonial”or BIP) and which the family office has acquired from Neinor, after resolving the associated urban planning problems.

Last Friday marked the closure of the period for public claims that the regional Government, led by Cristina Cifuentes, had opened to declare the historical building a BIP. The proposal was undertaken to ensure the survival of the property and avoid its demolition, something that several citizens’ groups had been demanding for some time. Following that deadline, the last great uncertainty surrounding the building was lifted and that has paved the way for the definitive agreement between Mazabi and Neinor.

The real estate company, which is controlled by Lone Star, inherited both the hotel and the theatre from their former owner, Kutxabank, after it had previously foreclosed both assets. The company has been in exclusive negotiations with Mazabi for four months. To seal the deal, a solution for the Teatro Albéniz needed to be guaranteed, and that option was resolved on Friday, when the period for claims came to an end. Sources at the family office have confirmed the deal, but have declined to make any further comments.

Sources close to the transaction say that Mazabi’s plans now involve returning the two buildings to their former splendour, and leasing them in their entirety to a luxury hotel chain. The growing interest from these types of operators in locating themselves in the centre of Madrid will certainly play into the hands of the family office; and the development may include the renovation of a theatre annex as a means of allowing (the chosen hotel chain) to offer a differential value proposition.

The theatre’s future

In total, the operation involves a surface area of 13,000 m2, which have been assigned various uses. In the case of the Hotel Madrid, besides tourism, it has a 1,000 m2 retail outlet on Calle Carretas, the street that links Puerta del Sol with Calle Atocha. Meanwhile, the upper floors of Teatro Albéniz may be used for residential or hotel purposes, and the three underground floors, which were destroyed by fire five years ago, have a surface area of 2,000 m2 and may be used as a nightclub.

Given the level of protection announced by Cifuentes, the survival of the entire stage house is guaranteed, and the door is also opened to “all other uses that are compatible with the space and its layout, in other words, plays, shows, concerts, conventions…, in other words, all activities that need a stage and a public…” said the regional government in December.

Having acquired the two buildings, which share a plot of land that used to house the Royal Press in the 18th Century, Mazabi will now begin two years of construction work to completely refurbish them. Although the consideration paid has not been revealed, the valuation of these properties may reach between €70 million and €80 million, on the basis of market rents and once the restoration work has been completed, according to one real estate expert.

Both the hotel and theatre have been closed since 2008. The former was occupied by hundreds of squatters for a time, before the police evicted them at the end of 2011, just after the fire in the basement of the Teatro Albéniz. (…)

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Ministry Of Development: Housing Permits Rose By 39% In 2015

29 January 2016 – Expansión

Permits for the construction of new homes are at a five-year high, but the figures are still tiny compared with their pre-crisis levels.

The number of permits requested for the construction of new homes soared by 39% last year, to around 48,600, according to official data published by the Ministry of Development for the 11 months to November.

In this way, requests for the construction of new homes recorded a second consecutive year of increases and reached a five-year high, not seen since 2011.

Between January and November, requests were made for 44,577 permits to construct homes, which represents an increase of 35% compared to the previous year.

If we assume that this rate of demand was maintained during the last month of the year (around 4,050 per month), then the total would have amounted to around 48,600 permits by year end.

Despite these figures reaching their highest levels for five years, they still fall a long way below the series maximum, recorded in 2006, just before the crisis when the sector was at the height of its boom and 865,561 permits were requested. To put this into context, the number of permits requested during the whole of last year was equivalent to the number requested in just one month in 2006.

During 2015, 69% of all permits requested related to the construction of new blocks of flats, with 33,900 units, representing a YoY increase of 45%.

The other permits requested last year related to single-family residences, with 14,700 requests in total, up by 27% compared with the previous year.

More renovations

Similarly, in 2015, the number of permits requested to renovate or restore homes increased by 14%, to reach 25,668.

By contrast, during the same period, the number of requests for home extensions decreased, albeit more moderately (by 3%), from 1,485 in 2014 to 1,428 in 2015.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake