Loom to Open 10 Co-Working Offices in 2019 including a Centre in Barcelona

5 November 2018 – Eje Prime

Loom is on a mission. The company specialising in shared work centres is planning to open a dozen new co-working spaces in 2019. The assets identified, all of which are owned by Merlin, are distributed between Madrid, Barcelona and other Spanish capitals, such as Málaga, Alicante and Valencia, according to Paula Almansa, co-founder and CEO of the company, speaking to Eje Prime.

Currently, the operator is finalising the details for the launch of its third co-working office in Spain. The space, located at number 38, Calle Don Ramón de la Cruz, in the Salamanca neighbourhood of Madrid, will open its doors between May and June next year, after the renovation work on the property has been completed.

Another of Loom’s objectives in the short term is to take its co-working concept to new parts of the country, in particular, to the Catalan capital. “One of the areas that we currently have in mind is the 22@ district”, said Almansa. In this sense, Merlin’s portfolio of assets plays in the company’s favour. In fact, the Socimi has a gross leasable area (GLA) of 31,337 m2, distributed over four office buildings in that district.

One year after it acquired 31% of Loom, the group led by Ismael Clemente has decided to merge it with Twisttt, the brand that it created to debut in the co-working market in 2017. “It is a decision that we have taken together; it did not make sense for us to promote two brands separately when, at the end of the day, we were both pursuing the same objective”, said the director of Loom.

Merlin is now consolidating its position as the main landlord of the company led by the siblings Paula and Jose Almansa, who are already starting to take advantage of the large number of assets that the real estate giant owns all over the Iberian Peninsula. Málaga, Valencia and Alicante are the next destinations in which Loom plans to launch between 2019 and 2020, hand in hand with local partners, followed by Lisbon, “a city that we do not rule out launching in in the future”, said the co-founder.

For now, the company has three co-working spaces in Madrid: one at number 5 Calle Princesa, another at number 11 Calle Huertas and the final centre at number 1 Calle Vandergoten, in the Real Fábrica de Tapices. Nevertheless, the company is not limiting itself when it comes to choosing new locations and it is open to backing areas that “are not considered prime nor are home to too much competition”.

Loom’s project is a long-term venture, although they are aware that the wind will not always blow in their favour. “The co-working industry still has a long way to go, but it is also true that recently, many spaces of this kind have been opened and very high rents are being paid”, explained Almansa, who also believes that it is important to take advantage of moments of crisis to attract more users.

Original story: Eje Prime (by B. Seijo & J. Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Co-Working Spaces in Madrid & Barcelona Rise by 71% YoY to September

23 October 2018 – Eje Prime

Co-working spaces are on a roll in Spain. This global phenomenon in the office market is also reflected in ratios that keep on growing. In Madrid and Barcelona alone, 55,900 m2 of this type of flexible office space was leased between January and September, which represented an increase of 71% with respect to the same period last year.

According to the Flexible spaces in Spain study, compiled by the consultancy firm Cushman&Wakefield, during the first nine months of the year, 26,800 m2 of co-working office space was leased in Madrid and 29,100 m2 in Barcelona.

This growth is the result of the commitment to co-working spaces by large corporations. According to explanations provided in the report, “at the beginning of the 2000s, small spaces predominated, occupied by self-employed people and freelancers; nowadays, those spaces still exist, but the potential of the co-working phenomenon has led to companies such as Banco Santander (Openbank), Accenture and Everis, amongst others, also using flexible spaces for some of their activities”.

The boom in flexible and shared office space intensified in 2014, the first year of the recovery. Besides large corporate groups, which rely on this office model for optimising their real estate resources and the productivity of their employees, international co-working giants have arrived in Spain in recent years to create supply to meet the growing demand.

WeWork and Spaces (owned by Regus), global specialists in this segment, already have expansion plans for the domestic market. The same is happening with the main Socimis, such as Merlin and Colonial, which, in addition to promoting brands that manage co-working spaces, are also adapting several of their properties to convert them into flexible offices.

Madrid and Barcelona are the focus of this market. WeWork already has 35,000 m2 of office space leased in the two capitals. It is managing one fifth, 7,000 m2, from 22@, the technological hub of Barcelona, one of the epicentres of co-working in Spain. Spaces is planning to grow in the same district, where it already has 6,000 m2 of space across several buildings.

In terms of the large Spanish real estate companies, Merlin and Colonial are, to date, the firms that have backed this new trend most convincingly Both have entered the sector by purchasing or teaming up with specialist companies this market. Colonial acquired the brand Utopicus at the end of 2017, as revealed by Eje Prime, and now has a commitment to open ten new co-working centres from 2019, which will span a total of 15,000 m2 between Madrid and Barcelona.

Meanwhile, Merlin has launched the brand Twisttt, through Loom House, a Spanish shared office manager in which the Socimi owns more than 30%. Other domestic players such as Inmobiliaria del Sur have already made investments in this sector. In October last year, the Andalucian real estate firm launched iSspaces, a co-working centre in Sevilla measuring 1,800 m2 (…).

The identity of the next players to enter the stage is a mystery, but the fact that co-working has a long journey ahead in the office market in Spain and around the world is very much a reality.

Original story: Eje Prime (by J. Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Twisttt: Merlin Launches New Co-Working Brand Together with Loom House

20 April 2018 – Eje Prime

Merlin doesn’t want to get left behind in the race between the real estate companies in the co-working sector and so has taken the lead. The Socimi led by Ismael Clemente is going to launch a new co-working brand, under the name Twistt, together with Loom House, the company specialising in shared work centres, in which the Socimi acquired a stake of more than 30% last May. As sources at Merlin have explained to EjePrime, the first space under this new co-working brand is going to be opened in a building that the Socimi owns in Calle Princesa, Madrid.

The Socimi is going to open its first Twisttt space at number 5 Calle Princesa, in a building that it already owns. “Under this new brand, Merlin is going to contribute the assets and Loom House is going to be responsible for managing the co-working space”, explain the sources. There will be 1,100 m2 of shared office space, which can house up to 150 users. Twisttt’s first space is expected to be fully operational by June.

Although the sources at Merlin are not yet able to define the route map that the two groups will adopt with Twisttt, the plans involve opening at least one more co-working centre before the end of the year. “Unlike Loom House, which is an ecosystem focused on innovation, Twisttt is a much more practical ecosystem”, explain sources at the group. Twisttt will belong to the same company as Loom House, Innovación Colaborativa, and so will not be a new company.

This new project comes almost a year after Merlin purchased a 31% stake in Loom House. Paula Almansa and Jose Almansa are the founders of Loom House, a concept that seeks to differentiate itself from a “simple co-working because we wanted to go one step further”, explained its co-founder. “It is a space destined to innovation, to sharing ideas, that allows you to reflect” – explains Almansa-; if all you want us a workspace with wifi and a coffee shop, there are other options ahead of Loom House”.

Loom House is the spin-off of Impact Hub, the first co-working that was created in Spain by ten entrepreneurs (including the Almansa siblings). “After seeing that the co-working concept was starting to be accepted in Spain, we got down to work with Loom House, opening our first space in the ‘Real Fábrica de Tapices’ in 2016”, say sources at the group (…).

Now, the company is preparing to go one step further with the launch of its second Loom House space. This new centre, which will span 1,500 m2 and which will be able to house more than 190 users, is going to be located at number 9 Calle Huertas, in the Las Letras neighbourhood, in the former Chamber of Commerce building. Work to remodel the asset has already begun and is expected to be completed by in June.

The co-working war 

The entry of Merlin into the co-working sector is not an isolated or anecdotal event. Ismael Clemente’s Socimi is following in the footsteps of Colonial, which acquired a majority stake in the Madrilenian based firm Utopicus (specialising in coworking) last October, to develop a new branch of its business, as Eje Prime revealed.

Currently, Utopicus has three centres in Madrid, located on Calles Duque de Rivas, Colegiata and Doctor Esquerdo (…).

Now, with the objective of generating a profit from its investment, Colonial is going to open three more Utopicus centres, on this occasion in Barcelona (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake