Catalana Occidente Buys Amazon’s HQ In 22@ For €90M

21 September 2017 – Expansión

Catalana Occidente has reached an agreement to purchase the Luxa office complex, in the 22@ district of Barcelona for €90 million. The offices – owned until now by Grupo Castellví, and the funds Stoneweg and 1810 Capital Investments – will house the offices of Amazon and WeWork from 2018 onwards (once their construction has been completed).

This sale is one of the most significant real estate operations of the year in the Catalan capital. The consultancy firm CBRE has advised Grupo Castellví and the investment funds, whilst Cushman & Wakefield has advised the insurance group Catalana Occidente.

The complex, located at the intersection of Calles Tánger and Badajoz, comprises two independent buildings. The first, known as Luxa Silver because of its silver façade, has a surface area of 10,000m2. The second, known as Luxa Gold, has a surface area of 7,000m2. The complex also includes 300 parking spaces. Building work at the site is due to be completed in the first quarter of 2018.

The buildings, designed by the architecture firm Batlle I Roig, form part of Group Castellví’s 22@ Business Park space. There is a third building, in the same area, known as WIP, measuring 4,500m2, which is still up for rent and which has not been included in this transaction. Castellví and the funds have invested €60 million on the construction of the three buildings. Amazon is going to occupy the Luxa Silver building. The technology giant will locate its SME support centre for Southern Europe in the building, which will result in the generation of 500 jobs, as well as an R&D centre about automatic learning, where more than 100 engineers and scientists will work.

Meanwhile, WeWork, the US multinational coworking group, will move into the Luxa Gold building.

Second operation

This is not the first time that Catalana Occidente has purchased a building in the 22@ district. At the beginning of the year, the insurance group acquired La Llave de Oro for €21 million, a building located at number 289 Calle Pere IV. The building is leased in its entirety to the technology firm Atos Origin.

Original story: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés and Gabriel Trindade)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Grosvenor Buys 2 Buildings In Madrid To Turn Them Into Homes

17 July 2017 – Expansión

The British real estate company Grosvenor has acquired two buildings in Madrid, which it will transform into new luxury apartments and commercial spaces. Specifically, Grosvenor, through its subsidiary Europe, has purchased one building, with a surface area of 3,000 m2, located between c/Modesto Lafuente and c/José Abascal. The property, which currently houses offices, will undergo a comprehensive renovation to create thirteen 3- and 4-bedroom homes, spread over ten floors.

Similarly, the British group has acquired another property, located on c/Santa Engracia, with a surface area of around 1,800 m2. There, the real estate company plans to create 18 homes, including two penthouses and some retail premises.

The two operations form part of the joint venture created by Grosvenor and the Asian firm Amcorp in July 2016, which has the aim of investing €70 million in Spain during its first phase.

In May, the alliance closed its first transaction with the purchase of a plot of land measuring 820 m2, at number 53 on Calle Jorge Juan, to promote seven exclusive apartments.

The British group, founded in 1677 by Sir Thomas Grosvenor, is currently one of the largest real estate owners in Great Britain.

Grosvenor is one of several major international investors that has taken the decision to back the residential market in Spain. Funds such as Kennedy Wilson, Lone Star, Greenoak, Grosvenor, Autonomy Capital, Invesco, as well as family offices and representatives of wealthy families such as Shaftesbury, the Capriles family, Stoneweg and Dazi are all currently working on residential projects in the Spanish market.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Stoneweg Will Construct 2,000 Homes During 2017

22 May 2017 – El Mundo

(…) In line with the strong performance of the Spanish economy and, more specifically, the residential market, the real estate investment platform Stoneweg, a company that manages funds on behalf of institutional investors and family offices in Europe and Latin America, has just made its official presentation, confirming that it has €750 million to invest in property development in Spain during 2017.

Although headquartered in Switzerland, the company was founded in 2015 by two Spaniards, Jaume Sabater and Joaquín Castellví, who both previously worked in the Real Estate area at the investment bank Edmond de Rothschild. Over the last few years, Stoneweg’s investment capacity in real estate assets has exceeded €1,600 million, spread across Spain, the USA, Italy and a small part of Switzerland. (…).

Commitment to Spain

“We decided to take positions in Spain in 2015, buying land and buildings from financial institutions, Sareb and individual owners”, said Joaquín Castellví, Stoneweg’s CEO in Spain. The reasons for the firm’s commitment to Spain include its confidence in the strength of the economic recovery, the “attractive” financing conditions being offered for real estate assets and the “speed and transparency” with which the firm is able to access and close operations with local agents. “Moreover”, added Castellví, “mortgages for real estate assets are increasing again, which means that the Spanish market will be the ideal place to sell assets in around five years”.

Stoneweg’s main investment focus is on the residential market (where it will allocate two-thirds of its capital under management) be it the development of new homes or the renovation of existing buildings. To this end, the modus operandi of the management company, which has already invested €450 million of the €750 million that it is planning to spend this year, consists of closing operations to purchase land or buildings with tickets of between €100 million and €150 million to build on themselves or in conjunction with local property developers.

Currently, the company has 30 residential projects underway (in varying phases), with a total of 1,300 homes, which are due to be ready at various points between this year and 2020. It also plans to close the year with 50 projects in its portfolio, corresponding to 2,000 homes for sale.

Stoneweg insists on building homes “in accordance with the highest international standards, to ensure an extraordinary level of comfort”.

In terms of their locations of choice, Castellví confirmed that his company is focusing on Madrid, Barcelona and the Mediterranean Coast, “but” he says, “ we are flexible both in terms of the type of project, as well as location within the aforementioned areas”. (…).

Original story: El Mundo (by Luis M. De Ciria)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Stoneweg Will Invest €750M+ In RE Assets In Spain

26 April 2017 – El Mundo

Stoneweg, the real estate platform created in Switzerland by Jaume Sabater and Joaquín Castellví – specialists in Real Estate following their time at the bank Edmond de Rothschild – has announced the opening of its first two offices in Spain, in Barcelona and Madrid.

In this way, Stoneweg is consolidating its position in the Spanish market, where it has been investing in numerous and diverse real estate developments since 2015. The company has also announced that, over the next few years, it will allocate more than €750 million to investments in Spain, of which €450 million has already been committed to various projects. Specifically, the developments that Stoneweg is already constructing, managing and marketing in Spain – which are due to be delivered between 2017 and 2020 – are located in the urban nuclei of Madrid and Barcelona, the metropolitan rings of both cities and the Mediterranean Coast (Costa Brava, Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol).

In total, the manager is working on more than 1,300 homes across 30 developments, on residential land spanning 200,000 m2 and retail premises, as well as three developments measuring more than 22,000 m2 above ground in several office buildings. The platform has created this sizeable investment portfolio by purchasing properties from the banks, Sareb and private owners.

“We place our trust in Spain due to its power for constant economic growth and its high capacity to attract tourists in search of a second home, as well as for the strengthening of mortgages and the rapid access to them”, explained Joaquín Castellví, Director of Acquisitions at Stoneweg and CEO of Stoneweg Spain. (…).

The manager has signed agreements with some of the main financial entities (Banco Santander, BBVA, La Caixa, Banco Sabadell, Abanca) and strategic partners (Grupo Sorigue, Ferrocarril, Grupo Castellví) with the aim of constituting one of the most robust real estate groups in Europe.

In addition to Spain and Switzerland, the manager led by Sabater and Castellví also has a presence in Italy and the USA, and has an investment capacity of more than €1,400 million in real estate assets across all of its markets (50% of which will be invested in Spain). (…).

Stoneweg’s new offices in Spain, located on Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid, one of the capital’s main thoroughfares, and on Calle Mestre Nicolau, in the heart of Barcelona’s financial district, will employ personnel with an average age of around 32 years old, which means that Stoneweg will be the real estate manager with one of the youngest workforces in the country.

Next month, the platform will participate in Sima (Salón Inmobiliario de Madrid) for the first time, with the aim of promoting, amongst others, the projects that it already has underway in the Spanish capital, especially the developments at the Fresno Norte urbanisation, and on Calles Alfonso X and Mateo Inurria, which are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2017 and/or the beginning of 2018.

Original story: El Mundo

Translation: Carmel Drake

Castellví To Construct 2 Office Buildings In Barcelona’s 22@ District

14 March 2016 – Mis Oficinas

The Catalan property developer will construct two office buildings on land that it now owns after teaming up with the foreign managers Stoneweg and Global Danbury.

The property developer group Castellví has reached an agreement with the funds Stoneweg and Global Danbury to begin the development of an office complex in the 22@ district of Barcelona, where it will make an investment of €45 million.

The complex, which will contain two eight-storey buildings with an above-ground surface area of more than 26,000 m2, is the first office project to come onto the market in the city since the end of the crisis.

Original story: Mis Oficinas

Translation: Carmel Drake