Tag: store

Ores has Invested €362.5M in 35 Assets Across the Iberian Peninsula

16 April 2019 – Eje Prime

Ores, the Socimi owned by Bankinter and Sonae Sierra, has invested €362.5 million in 35 assets across the Iberian Peninsula since its creation, according to a report filed by the company with the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) at the end of Q1 2019.

During the first quarter of this year, the company purchased a retail store in Burgos with a gross leasable area of 724 m2 for €5.2 million.

The company’s portfolio comprises hypermarkets (28.1%), mini-hypermarkets (17.8%) and retail parks (15%), amongst others. Its assets are located mainly in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as in prime areas of provincial capitals.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Día Engages PwC to Handle the Sale of 300 Supermarkets

22 February 2019 – Idealista

Día is looking for solutions to cushion the impact of its business plan, which forecasts the elimination of up to 2,100 jobs, by selling off its premises. The company has engaged PwC to look for a buyer or buyers for as many stores as possible of the 300 that it plans to close this year.

Día is going to present an Employment Regulation File to the company’s unions, which has already been announced will affect a maximum of 2,100 employees, all in Spain. To minimise the redundancies, the company wants to get rid of the property that it is hoarding in a large number of locations across the country and raise all of the funds that it can.

Most of the dismissals that Día is planning will be concentrated amongst staff in the stores that are going to be closed, in such a way that, to the extent that interested parties can be found to acquire those establishments, they will try to reach an agreement with them to absorb the workforce, or at least, some of it.

Día is whereby returning to PwC after entrusting the firm with a similar task to divest its cash & carry business, Max Descuento, for which it expects to receive almost €50 million.

The Big Four firm, which is making contact with industrial companies interested in acquiring this business, will propose acquiring the stores in batches. Día expects to have closed all of its divestments by the middle of this year.

Original story: Idealista 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Corpfin Sells a Commercial Premise in San Sebastián for €7M

30 November 2018 – Eje Prime

Corpfin is divesting in the north. The Spanish Socimi has sold a commercial premise in the centre of San Sebastián for €7 million. The purchaser of the asset, which is located at number 7 Calle Getaria, is unknown, according to a statement filed with the Alternative Investment Market (MAB).

Calle Getaria is, together with Calle Hernani y Arrasate, one of the most sought-after streets for the retail market in the Guipuzkoan capital. The asset used to be the headquarters of Kutxa, the savings bank of Guipuzkoa, until 2014 and is now home to a Pull& Bear store, a brand from the Inditex group. This divestment in Euskadi is the second undertaken by the vehicle in recent months, following the sale of Gran Vía 55 in Madrid in September.

In addition, and through Inbest, Corpfin Real Estate has disbursed €250 million in two large operations in Madrid and Valencia during the last quarter. The first was the agreement reached with Riu to acquire the commercial area in Edificio España for €160 million. And that was followed by the purchase from El Corte Inglés of a building in the centre of Valencia for €90 million.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Mango Sells its Store on c/Corrida in Gijón & Leases it Back for €30,000/Month

28 October 2018 – El Comercio

Mango has sold the building located at number 28 Calle Corrida, in Gijón, which has housed its megastore in the city since 2015, to a domestic investor for €8 million. The Catalan multi-national textile firm acquired the iconic property, which used to house the former headquarters of Banesto, in 2014. At the time, it paid Banco Santander €6.2 million for the property. The building work for the commercial conversion of the building, which spans a surface area of 1,642 m2, spread over the ground first and attic floor, cost another almost €2 million.

On this occasion, the sale operation has been undertaken as a sale&leaseback deal (…). In other words, Mango has sold the asset on the city’s main high street but will remain there as the tenant, paying a sizeable rent to the new owner: more than €30,000 per month (…).

That is not the only change happening on Calle Corrida over the coming months. The Inditex Group is looking to relocate some of its brands onto the Golden Mile of Gijón despite the shortage of available units (…).

In terms of prices, according to Alejandro López, lawyer and director of the real estate consultancy firm Noxtrum Novotec, “the average rental price is €62/m2/month, with variations ranging from €50/m2/month to €70/m2/month”.

Original story: El Comercio (by M. Moro)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Urban Outfitters to Open Spain’s First Anthropologie Store in Barcelona

25 October  2018 – Eje Prime

The Spanish retail sector is welcoming a new international operator. After an arduous two-year search for premises on the prime high streets of Madrid and Barcelona, Urban Outfitters has found a space to launch its first Anthropologie store in the country. This debut comes four years after the US fashion group first opened its doors in the heart of the Catalan capital.

Anthropologie is soon going to open at number 27 Paseo de Gracia, in a store measuring almost 780 m2, distributed over two floors and owned by a family office. The chain is going to take over from the Italian firm Twinset Milano, which will shut down in the next few days. The rental operation has been brokered by the real estate consultancy firm Aretail.

Specifically, the ground floor of the future Anthropologie establishment has a surface area 365 m2, whilst the basement spans 414 m2. The company will share the street with luxury operators such as Fendi, Céline and Kenzo, as well as with major distribution groups such as Inditex, Fast Retailing, H&M and Mango, amongst others.

Urban Outfitters arrived in the Spanish market in May 2014, when it launched a subsidiary to manage its business in the country. That same year, the group opened the first store of its homonymous chain in the El Triangle shopping centre in Barcelona, where it replaced the home décor firm Habitat.

Two years after its first opening, the US company started to search for new locations both in the Catalan capital and in Madrid to open its first points of sale for Anthropologie and Free People, the other chain owned by Urban Outfitters. In the spring, rumours of the imminent closure of an operation were revived.

Anthropologie is the group’s largest division by turnover, ahead of Urban Outfitters itself. The female fashion chain closed 2017 with sales of $1.4 billion (€1.2 billion), up by 1.9%. That figure accounted for 39.4% of the group’s total revenues.

At the end of its last financial year (31 January 2018), the chain operated 226 stores in the USA, Canada and Europe. The company is immersed in an international expansion process, which includes an overseas growth strategy. For that reason, Anthropologie appointed Peter Ruis, the former director of Levi Strauss, as the senior director of the international business in July.

Original story: Eje Prime (by L. Molina and P. Riaño)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sfera Leaves Gran Vía & Frees Up 1,000 m2 of Prime Retail Space

23 August 2018 – Eje Prime

Sfera is freeing up 1,000 m2 of space in the centre of Madrid. In September, the fashion chain owned by El Corte Inglés is going to abandon the store it currently occupies on Gran Vía, with a useful commercial surface area of 600 m2. The company has decided not to renew the rent that tied it to the recent purchaser of the building, the US fund Thor Equities.

Located at number 30 on the Spanish capital’s main commercial thoroughfare, surrounded by competitor brands (Inditex, H&M, Tendam and Primark, amongst others), the store is no longer of interest to Sfera, which has justified its departure on the basis of the small size of the store for the exhibition model that it is developing, according to Cinco Días. The chain has occupied this three-story establishment (comprising the first, ground and basement floors) since 2005.

Sfera is immersed in a process to renovate and reorganise its business plan for its commercial activity in the centre of Madrid. The company recently remodelled its store at number 4 Calle Preciados, which has a surface area of 2,500 m2 spread over five storeys.

The objective of the chain is to strengthen the presence of its store on Preciados so that it will become the firm’s flagship store in the centre of Madrid. Similarly, Sfera is going to start work soon on the renovation of its store at number 56 Calle Fuencarral. The company’s portfolio of retail assets in the centre of the Spanish capital is completed by a second establishment at number 118 Calle Fuencarral and the concession stands it has in the El Corte Inglés stores in the area.

In total, Sfera renovated 26 of its stores in Spain in 2017. With a presence in 15 countries besides Spain, where it opened its newest store just a few months ago in Fuengirola (Málaga), the chain is investing considerably in the international real estate market. The clearest example is Mexico, where the firm has 45 stores, all operated as franchises.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Grupo Arenal Acquires Banesto’s Former HQ in Bilbao for €6M

26 April 2018 – El Correo

Onwards and upwards. Bizkaia is continuing to form the backdrop to some of the country’s most high profile real estate transactions. Following the placement on the market of BBVA’s old skyscraper for €100 million and the Ballonti commercial mega-centre in Portugalete for €150 million, big-name investment funds have put Bilbao in their line of fire once again for large operations that mix financial, commercial and real estate interests.

The most recent major intervention has been undertaken by three players. The international consultancy firm Catella has brokered the sale of Banesto’s former headquarters, located at number 3 Calle Navarra. The perfume company Grupo Arenal has acquired the historical building, which has been closed for several years following the cessation of the bank’s activity. The Galician firm has made the disbursement for the property, which spans 2,500 m2 and is spread over three floors.

According to experts in the sector, the operation has been closed for a sum of around €6 million, a figure on which sources at Catella declined to comment yesterday. The consultancy firm, one of the most important in Europe and founded by the owner of Ikea, who ended up selling it to a fund, has served as a bridge between Grupo Arenal, which had been studying the Bilbao market for years, and the former owners of the iconic building. The building previously belonged to a family office of the Invivas Group, owned by the Bilbao-based businessman Sabino Arrieta Heras.

To a certain extent, this operation breaks the mould of the recent sales and purchases carried out in Bilbao. To date, most of the acquisitions have involved local investment funds, which follow very closely the few buildings that become free in the city. The amount disbursed by Grupo Arenal is slightly lower than the figure agreed two weeks ago by the Governing Board of the Town Hall of Bilbao to acquire the largest Zara store in Euskadi and use it for the future expansion of the Basque Museum.

The PNV and PSE approved the payment of €5 million – divided into equal parts by the Town Hall and the Diputación de Bizkaia – for a store measuring just over 1,900 m2 on Calle La Cruz, owned by a company chaired by the wife of the Inditex founder.

A 70m-long façade

The arrival of Grupo Arenal has fulfilled the expectations of all the parties involved. Santander has freed itself of a property for which it was paying a sizeable rent, even though it was empty, and the perfume brand is ensured a shop window that measures more than 70m in a retail area that is very much on the rise (…).

The megastore, whose neighbours will include Starbucks, will soon open its second store in the Vizcaya capital, as it seeks to take advantage of the future “commercial pull” of Primark, which is going to occupy five floors of BBVA’s tower and the arrival of TAV. It is also hoping to benefit from its proximity “to major fashion operators, such as El Corte Inglés, Inditex and Mango” (…).

The perfume brand is going to use Bilbao as a “strategic” axis in its expansion plans, which involve increasing its revenue to €150 million and growing the number of points of sale from 40 to 60 by 2020.

Original story: El Correo (by Luis Gómez)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Family Office Puts Tesla’s Store on c/Serrano Up For Sale for €7M

18 April 2018 – Eje Prime

The retail sector is hotting up in Madrid. A Spanish family office has put up for sale the store at number 3 Calle Serrano, which is occupied by Tesla, the company specialising in electric cars and led by Elon Musk. Although sources close to the operation have explained to Eje Prime that the process to receive offers has already begun, the estimated price of the asset is around €7 million.

This store has been occupied by Tesla since last September after it signed a lease contract that will continue in force following the sale. The asset has a retail surface area of 247 m2 spread over two floors. There, Tesla has a showroom, a warehouse and the group’s offices in Spain. According to real estate market sources, the consultancy firm CBRE is exclusively leading the sales process.

In recent months, the retail sector has been reactivated in the Spanish capital, with both the placing of premises on the market and the renovation of assets for their subsequent rental. The latest to be added to the portfolio of establishments for sale was the branch that Bankia owns at number 1 Calle Alcalá.

Although the bank already initiated an auction, which was attended by funds such as Arcano and real estate groups such as Renta, who were offering approximately €18 million for the premises, Bankia has decided to wipe the slate clean and launch a new auction process, through which it hopes to raise at least €20 million.

The asset, which, given its façade appeals more to restaurant operators than fashion retailers, is spread over two floors: the first floor spans 458 m2, whilst the basement measures 405 m2.

And from premises for sale to premises sold. In March, the fund manager IBA Capital, together with CBRE Global Investment, finally completed the sale of number 9 Calle Preciados, in Madrid, to the real estate investment vehicle of the insurance company Generali, Generali Real Estate. The Italian group paid €100 million for the asset, which is going to house Pull&Bear’s future flagship store on this high street, one of the most expensive in Spain for opening a store (…).

Investor appetite in 2018 

After closing 2017 with a total investment of €3.5 billion, the sector started 2018 with retail assets up for sale worth €2.5 billion. Moreover, during the course of this year, the volume of retail space on the national map is forecast to increase by 500,000 m2.

At the moment, shopping centres worth €2 billion are up for sale, along with high street products worth another €500 million. This situation guarantees a high degree of product availability for the segment, which is ideal at a time when Spain is very much in the firing line of international investors.

The influence of the retail market on the tertiary sector in 2017 is evidenced by the statistic that 38% of all transactions completed in this market involved retail assets, allowing retail assets to exceed office buildings for the first time ever.

With a volume increase of 36% over the last year, several large shopping centre openings are scheduled for 2018 including Open Sky in Madrid, which will see the arrival of Compagnie de Phalsbourg in Spain, after investing €160 million in the complex.

Similarly, in the Community of Madrid, the shutters will be lifted on X-Madrid, owned by Merlin, and in Málaga, McArthurGlen and Sonae Sierra will inaugurate a new designer outlet centre in the capital of the Costa del Sol. The stock of retail surface area in Spain amounts to 16.5 million m2, up by 1.4% YoY.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lidl Invested €110M Opening 29 Stores in Spain in 2017

11 January 2018 – Expansión

Lidl opened 29 new supermarkets in Spain in 2017, an expansion of the commercial network that involved investment of €110 million for the construction and fitting out of its new stores. Note, that figure excludes the disbursements made to lease or buy the land on which the premises were built.

The store openings were primarily carried out in areas where the German chain did not yet have a presence, although “some establishments were opened to replace others that already existed and that were either too small or that had been replaced by another store in a better location”. The new Lidl stores are the largest that the company has ever opened; they have an average retail space of around 1,400 m2.

The company has placed its focus on this expansion plan to enhance the space it dedicates to fresh produce, which now accounts for a third of its offer and which has become the main tool that the traditional distribution groups are using to deal with the threat from the purely online distribution groups.

Andalucía leads the ranking

By geographical region, the 29 inaugurations that Lidl undertook in 2017 were concentrated in Andalucía (6), the Community of Valencia and Cataluña (5 in both) and the Balearic Islands, Canary Islands and Madrid (3 in each). Above all, the chain bet on growing in coastal towns with significant tourist traffic. Nevertheless, Lidl also explored new locations, opening its first store in a shopping centre (in Islazul, Madrid).

The German firm has 540 stores and ten logistics platforms in Spain. Lidl closed its 2017 tax year in February. In 2016, it recorded turnover of €3.335 billion in the national market, up by 9.4%.

Original story: Expansión (by Victor M. Osorio)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Basque Family Office Invivas Sells Prime Retail Store in Bilbao

12 December 2017 – Eje Prime

A new operation has been signed in the heart of Bilbao. The Basque family office Invivas, which is backed by the family of Sabino Arrieta Heras, has sold a shop in the heart of the Basque city to Grupo Arenal. The purchaser is a family office specialising in investment in real estate assets and the owner of the Arenal perfume chain, according to explanations provided by the company to Eje Prime. The operation has been brokered by the real estate consultancy firm Catella.

Grupo Arenal, which did not want to disclose the amount of the operation, could have paid around €6 million for the asset. The property is located at number 3 Calle Navarra and its façade is more than 70m long. The store is located between the retail thoroughfares of Gran Vía, Rodríguez Arias and Ercilla.

It is a strategic location, which, as well as being home to the country’s major fashion retailers, such as El Corte Inglés, Inditex and Mango, is expecting to welcome a new Primark store soon; moreover, a high-speed train station is being built in the vicinity.

The space was the former main branch of Banesto in Bilbao and has a total surface area of 2,500 m2, spread over three floors. The first floor measures 777 m2, the ground floor spans 841 m2 and the basement has a surface area of 881 m2.

With this sale, Grupo Invivas, led by the former number two of the Basque Government’s Home Office (…) is divesting in the heart of Bilbao. This family office has been starring in real estate operations for several years, especially in the País Vasco, but also in the international market.

Its most recent purchases include a retail store in Miami, through Invivas Miami Real Estate, for €5.2 million (…). Four years ago, in the summer of 2013, it launched its operations in Germany with the purchase of a 1,000 m2 building in Frankfurt, used as offices and retail space, for €7 million (…).

The retail sector is thriving in the País Vasco  

One of the most active segments in Bilbao in recent months has been retail, as a result of the improvement in consumption. The activity in terms of new arrivals in the city has been led by domestic fashion brands, which have accounted for 44% of the new movements, followed by accessories firms (23%) and specialist brands (19%), according to a study compiled by the real estate consultancy firm CBRE (…).

The situation is similar in San Sebastián, where major groups such as Fnac and Zara have now arrived in the Mercado de San Martín; moreover, Pull&Bear, Mango and Violeta have set up shop in the former Kutxabank building (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake