3 October 2019 – The French real estate investment fund Corum has acquired a 5,890-m2 commercial warehouse from the Wala sporting goods distribution chain. The sale and leaseback operation comes with an implicit return of around 6%.
The warehouse, where Wala has been operating since 2011, is located at the southern end of Tarragona, around the Francolí and Entrevías industrial estates.
Original Story: Eje Prime – M. C. P.
Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner
17 June 2019 – Eje Prime
Emesa has completed the sale of a logistics warehouse spanning 32,000 m2 located in Valls (Tarragona) to the US fund Blackstone for €18 million, as part of its mission to divest its non-strategic assets.
The warehouse does not currently have a tenant and will have to be renovated before being put up for rent.
Original story: Eje Prime
Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake
19 March 2019 – Eje Prime
The average rental price in Barcelona amounted to €929.57 per month in 2018, up by 6% compared to the previous year, according to data from the Property Developers’ Association of Cataluña. In total, 53,524 rental contracts were signed in the Catalan capital last year.
By district, Sarrià Sant Gervasi recorded the highest average price, of €1,269 per month, ahead of Les Cortes and El Eixample (€1,090 and €1,038 per month, respectively). The lowest prices were recorded in Nou Barris and Horta Guinardó, where average rents amounted to €675 and €764 per month, respectively.
Average rental prices also increased in the other three Catalan capitals in 2018. Girona recorded an average price of €598/month, up by 6.5% YoY; Tarragona of €514/month, up by 7.8% YoY; and Lleida of €432/month, up by 6.2% YoY.
The Catalan municipalities with the highest average rental prices in 2018 were Sant Vicenç de Montalt, Cabrils and Sant Cugat del Vallès, with average prices of €1,251, €1,178 and €1,149 per month, respectively.
In total, 167,458 rental contracts were signed in the autonomous region, up by 7% YoY, and the average rental price amounted to €692/month.
Original story: Eje Prime
Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake
8 October 2018 – El Confidencial
Criteria, the holding company of the investment companies owned by La Caixa, has increased the price of the plots on which Hard Rock Café Entertainment World is set to be built. The new leisure and casino complex is due to be constructed in Tarragona, next to Port Aventura. That is according to explanations provided by sources in the real estate sector to justify the delay in the project, formerly BCN World, which constitutes the largest foreign investment pending in Cataluña and which will involve the disbursement of €2 billion in total.
Criteria had closed an option to sell the land worth €110 million. But that was in December 2014. Now that Hard Rock Café, a multinational from the United States of America specialising in hotel and restaurant complexes linked to casinos, wants to exercise the option, Criteria is claiming that the real estate market has recovered in the last four years and so the price needs to be updated.
Sources at Criteria declined to comment but other sources in the real estate sector explained that a new due diligence process is being carried out to determine the magnitude of the price increase. The new price is expected to amount to around €140 million, a claim that has been rejected wholeheartedly by the Hard Rock Café, which alleges, and rightly so, that the delays incurred by the project (…) which now amount to more than three years, cannot be attributed to the company.
According to the original plan, the project should have been ready by 2015. But, partly due to the withdrawal of investments, and partly due to the political instability in Cataluña, the complex has suffered various delays.
Hard Rock Café is the only company that survived the bidding process for the gambling licences and is now the main party responsible for developing the complex. The forecast investment in Tarragona amounts to €2 billion for the construction of Hard Rock Entertainment World, which will have two hotels and 1,100 rooms, a shopping area with 75 shops – which will be operated by the British giant Value Retail, owner of Las Rozas and La Roca – and a 10,000 m2 casino. The project is expected to create more than 11,000 jobs and will be carried out in phases: the first amounting to €600 million.
When the initial investor withdrew, which was led by the businessman Enrique Bañuelos, La Generalitat subrogated the option to purchase the land, as a way of ensuring the continuity of the project. But that operation is neutral. La Generalitat would only perform a transfer and the final investor would have to pay the price of the plots. The Administration does not want to assume the surcharge that the new valuation would now result in.
Different positions
Each party defends its position. For Hard Rock Café, it cannot make its company or the other investors responsible for the delays incurred and therefore, does not want to assume the additional cost.
Meanwhile, Criteria has renewed the sale option, which had a term of 18 months, on up to four occasions to ensure that the investment would not go to waste, and considers that its efforts should also be rewarded.
An agreement must be reached between the parties soon (…). This project is key for Cataluña and will only serve to turn around the foreign investment figures that have been negative for the Catalan Administration since the independence process entered its critical phase.
Licence in May
In May 2018, Hard Rock Café obtained the licence for the project, which includes the gambling licence for the casino, granted by La Generalitat. That administrative permit arrived a year late due to the political instability in Cataluña. Now, Hard Rock Café, which is owned by a tribe of Seminole Indians (Florida) has three years to submit its plans. La Generalitat expects the building work to begin in 2019. The negotiations with Criteria could mean more delays if the positions fester, warn sources in the real estate sector.
Original story: El Confidencial (by Marcos Lamelas)
Translation: Carmel Drake
25 May 2018 – Eje Prime
Hard Rock has been given the green light to build its gaming and leisure mega-complex in Tarragona. The Generalitat de Cataluña has unblocked the plans of the US group, which is going to invest €2 billion in this complex. The economic plan includes one line item amounting to €300 million for the purchase of land, located in Vila-seca, from CaixaBank.
The Ministry of Economy reported on Friday that it had awarded the US company the authorisation to install and operate a gaming casino, which will be located at the centre of the project and which is going to be called Hard Rock Entertainment World.
The next step that the group must take is to make a €10 million deposit within the next ten days, although that amount includes the €3 million that the company already paid in June last year to guarantee its involvement in the project.
Despite those assurances, Hard Rock has not had a rival in the public tender that was opened to develop the complex. The first multi-national leisure project in Spain will have a gaming area spanning 7,595 m2, as well as two large hotels with a surface area of 63,000 m2.
Similarly, the US company will promote a commercial space measuring 15,000 m2 in which 6,000 m2 will be dedicated to an extensive restaurant offering and the same amount of space will be used for the centre itself, where leisure and live entertainment spaces will also be opened.
€700 million to begin with
During the first phase of the project, Hard Rock is going to invest €700 million to purchase the land, cover the construction and financing costs and to acquire furniture, amongst other aspects.
The group expects that its multi-million euro investment to set up this mega-complex, will allow it to reach an economic impact in the tourist area of Tarragona, where it is located, on the Costa Dorada, of €1.3 billion. The Port Aventura World leisure resort is located in the vicinity of the future Hard Rock Entertainment World.
Original story: Eje Prime
Translation: Carmel Drake
24 May 2018 – Eje Prime
Vente Privee is strengthening its logistics structure in Spain. The French e-commerce titan, which also owns Privalia, has signed an agreement to lease a warehouse spanning 48,400 m2 in the Prologis Park Penedès complex in Tarragona.
The online retailer will whereby occupy the largest warehouse in the Prologis Park Penedès, which comprises three properties in total with a combined surface area of 128,000 m2. The complex, located between the Tarragonan towns of Santa Oliva and La Bisbal del Penedès, will allow it to handle the logistics requirements for the rest of the Iberian Peninsula and Southern Europe. The rental operation has been advised by the real estate consultancy JLL.
The reinforcement of Vente Privee’s logistics structure in the Spanish market comes a year after the group announced an €80 million investment to strengthen its R&D division. That project involves the launch of a start-up accelerator specialising in fashion, retail and technology on the campus of Paris-based Station F.
Original story: Eje Prime
Translation: Carmel Drake
31 October 2017 – Diari de Tarragona
Construction cranes can be seen on the horizon in the city of Tarragona once again. And the empty plots of land that no one has paid attention to for years are now sparking interest in the real estate sector, which is starting to recover after a long time dormant, eager to restore itself. And if there is one area where this dynamism is almost tangible, it is the surroundings of the former Tabacalera tobacco factory. In recent months, several new real estate developments have been launched and players are busy making moves to ensure that they don’t miss out on the latest opportunities.
One of the most significant operations in recent times has been the purchase, by a European real estate fund, of the Tabacalera parking lot. This area, which will no longer be used as a park and ride site, from 21 November onwards, is getting ready for the beginnings of a new real estate development.
According to sources in the know, the operation was closed at the beginning of October, when Pachirisu SL purchased land from Altadis. That has been confirmed by the tobacco company itself, which said that, following the sale, “we have now sold everything we owned in Tarragona”.
The buyer company forms part of the Kronos group, which specialises in real estate development, and which started its activity in Spain in 2014, with the aim of competing with the major property developers and funds that are busy building homes across the country. A few months ago, the group’s management made a public appearance to announce that they plan to put 4,500 new homes on the market over the next three years; the development of Tabacalera will likely form part of the projects that the group is going to develop to that end. Cataluña, together with Madrid, the Costa del Sol and Alicante, are the regions where the company is investing.
The details of the project that the real estate group is going to promote in the city have not been revealed yet. “For the time being, everything is up in the air”, said the Kronos group, when asked about their plans (…).
Original story: Diari de Tarragona (by NAºria Riu)
Translation: Carmel Drake
7 September 2017 – Press Release
Yesterday, Neinor Homes completed the purchase of one plot of land in Valencia, which together with the acquisition of two other plots in Tarragona on Tuesday, means that the company has expanded its fully permitted land bank by c. 34,000 m2 in a matter of days.
The company plans to build 300 units on the newly acquired plots, taking the capacity of its fully permitted land bank to c. 12,000 units.
These latest acquisitions have a projected gross margin of c. 28%, which is well above the company’s targets. They were funded using the JP Morgan bridge financing announced last week.
Neinor’s total acquisitions since January now amount to €248 million, whereby fulfilling 100% of the company’s target for 2017 and 27% of its target for 2018.
The acquisitions are another indicator of Neinor Homes’ ability to anticipate the recovery in new regions, whereby strengthening its land bank in the City of Valencia and entering a new area in Cataluña: Tarragona.
Original story: Press Release
Edited by: Carmel Drake
28 July 2016 – Expansión
El Corte Inglés has inaugurated a new logistics platform in La Bisbal del Penedès (Tarragona) to strengthen its service in Cataluña and the rest of the Mediterranean area. It has invested almost €70 million in the site.
According to a statement issued by the company on Wednesday, the new centre is located on a plot of land measuring more than 230,000 sqm, but the first phase occupies just 45,000 sqm.
The aim of this platform is to complement the group’s warehouse and distribution centre in Montornès del Vallès (Barcelona), operational since the end of the 1970s and with a 200,000 sqm extension.
The company has indicated that the centre in La Bisbal del Penedès has capacity to grow in the future in order to improve service and distribution, not only in Catalunya, but also in Aragón, Levante, Murcia and the Balearic Islands.
With this inauguration, El Corte Inglés now employs almost one thousand workers in the logistics and distribution segment in Cataluña.
Besides its logistics centres in Cataluña, the group also owns a platform measuring more than 500,000 sqm in Valdemoro (Madrid), which has around 3,000 employees and warehouses more than 15 million product units.
Original story: Expansión
Translation: Carmel Drake
31 May 2016 – Mis Locales
The real estate consultancy BNP Paribas Real Estate has advised Corum Convictions, the real estate investment company owned by Corum Am, regarding the sale of a retail outlet in Tarragona worth €9.43 million.
The asset, located in the Les Gavarres shopping area in Tarragona is leased to Media Markt, the European leader in the sale of domestic appliances and high quality IT equipment.
The property has been acquired by Actipierre Europe, the real estate company owned by Ciloger, which, in turn has been advised by Invesco Real Estate to carry out the transaction. Corum Convictions applies an open and opportunistic strategy to its investments with a high rate of distribution, and to this end, it invests in all types of assets (offices, shops, healthcare, hospitality, business, car parks…) both in France as well as across the Eurozone.
Vincent Dominique, Director of Corum Am, has said that “With this sale, we continue to drive our opportunistic acquisition and arbitrage strategy, which benefits from the effects of economic cycles. In fact, based on what we expected in 2013, the year in which the most recent economic cycle in Spain bottomed out, both in terms of the macroeconomic environment and the real estate investment sector, the decrease in rates has allowed an increase in asset values, which has resulted in high and secure rental income and first-rate tenants”.
Original story: Mis Locales
Translation: Carmel Drake
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