Tag: urban development

Operación Chamartín’s Secret Contract: Adif Sells 1.2 million m2 of Public Land at Half its Market Value

27 December 2018 – El Diario

For 25 years, the agreement has remained a secret. It is the document that supports one of the largest urban development projects in Madrid in one of the most sought-after areas of the capital, in the north of the city, to continue the Castellana, where the financial district and the most expensive homes and offices are located, which are being sold for more than €5,000/m2. The contract is going to be signed on Friday. On the one hand, Adif, the public company that forms part of the Ministry of Development and that manages the railway infrastructure, and on the other, Distrito Castellana Norte, a property developer that has changed its name repeatedly over the last quarter of a century.

In 1993, the Ministry of Development, chaired at the time by Josep Borrell, now the Foreign Minister, signed an agreement with the construction firm San José and BBVA to develop the railway land reserved for Chamartín station. That agreement, whose term has been extended several times, has been kept under lock and key until today. The property developer filed several lawsuits to prevent it from being published.

However, eldiario.es is now exclusively publishing the latest draft of the agreement, which reveals the economic conditions of the project, which is reportedly the largest urban development project in Europe: the sale of 1.278 million m2 for homes and offices. On Friday, the definitive agreement will be signed, confirm sources at Adif, which has been blessed by the municipal planning of Manuela Carmena’s government and which will see the disposal of public buildable land for a price of €769.5/m2 in that area to the north of Madrid, the expansion area of the financial district, one of the most expensive parts of the capital.

Sources in the real estate sector claim that the agreed value represents half the market price at which other plots in the same area have been sold recently. In January, the same vendor, Adif, put another plot up for sale, further north, in San Sebastián de los Reyes, outside of the capital, which was sold for €1,500/m2 to a real estate cooperative: €16.3 million for 1,500 m2.

The gigantic plot that Adif is going to sell to Distrito Castellana Norte (DCN), formed by the construction firm San José and BBVA, groups together 1.27 million m2 of land, according to the current contract. For that space, DCN is going to pay €984.2 million, which represents a price of less than €769.5/m2 excluding the financial interest corresponding to the payment over 20 years.

Hours after eldiario.es published the contents of the agreement, Adif issued a statement confirming that the cost that the private partners (…) will pay for the operation is above market prices. To reach this conclusion, the public company (…) is taking the price of the land and adding the interest that will be paid for 20 years (3% each year), the budget for the urbanisation of the plot and even the transfer of the land that the law obliges to the property developer: 100,000 m2 for public housing that Adif estimates at €67.4 million.

In September, the Government of Manuela Carmena approved the general plan to authorise the urban development of the so-called Operación Chamartín. In the accompanying financial report, the only official estimate that exists, the Town Hall of Madrid calculates a land value that is three times higher than the figure that Adif is going to receive. In that document, Manuela Carmena’s Government establishes that the sale of the whole reclassified area (which groups together twice as much land as mentioned above and which also involves other landowners) “would amount to €3.749 billion in total”. The price established in that financial report corresponds to 2.6 million m2 of that urban development. According to those accounts, the price per m2 equates to €1,407/m2, well below the €769/m2 that Adif is going to receive (…).

Original story: El Diario (by Fátima Caballero)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Aena Mobilises Mega-Investments in Barajas & El Prat Amounting to €4.2bn

29 November 2018 – El Confidencial

The largest property developer in Spain is not a real estate company, it is AENA, a company that does not depend on the real estate sector for its business, on the contrary. It has started a race, together with external partners, to mobilise investments worth more than €4.2 billion focused on two projects: the urban development of Barajas and El Prat, annexes of the airports in Madrid and Barcelona. Together they represent the largest real estate project in Spain, and they are very focused on logistics due to the proximity to both airport centres, but also on offices. In office space, alone, the firm wants to promote almost 1 million m2 across the two urban areas.

This contradiction that the largest property developer is not an agent of the real estate sector is due to the fact that AENA is a very large landowner. For years, all of its plots have aged as if they were wine. The airport city in Barcelona, for example, was projected more than 14 years ago. But only now has Deloitte been engaged to look for international funds to mobilise that investment and Garrigues been contracted for legal advice about the monumental project.

And it is a long-term project. In the case of Barcelona, the most advanced of the two, it plans go out 20 years. In Barajas, the proposal is twice as long, 40 years. Moreover, according to sources in the sector, of the 622 hectares of net plots in Barajas, 396 hectares are awaiting development.

Given that the blocks of land are so close to the airports of the two capitals, logistics is the fundamental basis of the proposals. According to the latest report from Jones Lang Lasalle, logistics assets are generating yields of between 6% and 7%, a high rate when interest rates are so low. In the case of Barajas, for example, the planned logistics development represents the bulk of the project, 1.2 million m2 of constructed space, which will be the largest logistics centre in Spain, with the added synergy of connecting the current airport cargo area with the so-called Corredor del Henares.

In terms of office space, the plans also involve enormous dimensions. At El Prat, 362,000 m2 of constructed space is planned, almost as much as in the whole of the 22@ district promoted to date (…). And in the case of Madrid, it is even larger. At Barajas, the volume of planned offices is triple that figure, although it will have to be constructed over four decades.

In addition, there will be hangars, commercial areas, hotels and cargo services for aeroplanes. In practice, it will be like building two new cities, one in Barajas and the other in El Prat.

The immediate plans

The closest projects are the phases that have been planned for the next five to eight years. At the airport in Barcelona, the phase that AENA has called “catalysing” spans the first five years, during which time €387 million will be invested in total to promote almost 400,000 m2 in different types of urban planning projects.

These investments will run in parallel to the airport projects that have already been approved. In this way, AENA has already committed investments amounting to €690 million in El Prat, which include a new satellite terminal (…), to be carried out over the next four years.

This phase is longer at Barajas. It will last for eight years and will involve a forecast investment of €953 million, according to the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Real Estate Plan. During this phase, more than 500,000 m2 will be constructed (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by Marcos Lamelas)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Conren Tramway Acquires 90,000 m2 Plot in Barcelona from Mercedes Benz

9 November 2018 – Press Release

Conren Tramway has acquired an old factory in the Sant Andreu district of Barcelona from Mercedes-Benz España S.A.U. The factory has been active for more than 100 years.

The site on which Mercedes-Benz’s manufacturing facilities were located has a surface area of 90,000 m2 in a privileged setting, between the historic centre of Sant Andreu, the La Maquinista shopping centre, the future Parc del Camí Comtal and the Bon Pastor district.

This area of Barcelona is undergoing a major transformation with the execution of the La Sagrera – Sant Andreu public investment project, which forms part of the Barcelona Metropolitan Strategic Plan to promote the sustainable urban development of 164 hectares in the city. The future real estate development of this unique site will be the subject of in-depth analysis by Conren Tramway, its architects and its urban advisors in the coming months.

Conren Tramway is a real estate investment and asset management company based in Barcelona led by the brothers Jaime-Enrique and Paco Hugas. Conren Tramway invests in real estate operations in Barcelona and Madrid, in the repositioning and development of office, residential and/or mixed-use buildings.

Original story: Press Release

Edited by: Carmel Drake

Torre Sevilla Shopping Centre Opens its Doors

26 September 2018 – Eje Prime

Torre Sevilla has been completed, six years on. The shopping centre, promoted by CaixaBank, will open its doors to the public today, whereby culminating an urban development program that began to take shape in the 1990s. The complex alone, located in the centre of Sevilla, has involved an investment of €100 million, a third of the total amount spent on the macro-project.

Torre Sevilla is opening its doors at the height of the Retail Apocalypse and at a turbulent time for the sector in Sevilla: Palmas Altas announced last week that it has changed its name to Lagoh, whilst the Alcora shopping centre project has been cancelled.

The new complex in Sevilla is a mixed development that includes, as well as a shopping centre, an office building, a Eurostars hotel, CaixaForum Sevilla and Parque de Magallanes. The shopping centre, designed by the Argentinian architect César Pelli, comprises two large buildings with a gross leasable area (GLA) of 26,700 m2 and a constructed surface area of 43,000 m2.

The complex will open its doors with a 95% occupancy rate, and with Primark, Fnac and Ikea as the drivers. “People don’t go shopping anymore, they go for a walk, and formats such as hypermarkets are no longer the drivers”, explains Antonio Cayuela, President of BuildingCenter and sole administrator of Puerto Triana (the company that controls the complex).

In this sense, Cayuela emphasises the location of Torre Sevilla, in the heart of the city, and its integration with the office building and hotel, which ensures footfall “every day of the week”.

“Shopping centres are changing, just like retail: the trend is now returning to local businesses, with smaller but very accessible formats, close to the city”, says the executive. The property developer forecasts that the centre will receive around 8 million visitors per year.

Torre Sevilla’s offer includes, amongst others, the first stores from Ikea, Primark and Xiaomi in the city centre, as well as restaurants and services such as a gym and a catering facility – a cross between a supermarket and a restaurant – serving homemade food to take away.

“Hypermarkets are no longer the drivers”, says Cayuela. “We have ruled out cinemas, because they occupy a lot of space, because there are lots of them and because in the era of Netflix, they are no longer attractive”, he says.

“Omnichannel” corner to compete with the internet 

In this sense, Torre Sevilla is also planning to incorporate new concepts over the medium term to encourage omnichannel integration and attract footfall to the complex at a time when the online channel is gaining more and more traction.

In this sense, the company will launch a space called Omni Tech, which will integrate different omnichannel tools, such as click and collect. “We want to be a leader in the implementation of new ideas in terms of omnichannels; although I do not think that the online channel will ever completely substitute a physical purchase, it is important to have a good experience in person to attract people to stores”, says the executive.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Iria P. Gestal)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Aedas Homes Acquired Developable Land in Madrid for 2,000 Homes in 2017

2 April 2018 – Inmodiario

Aedas Homes, a key player in the new cycle of the residential property development market, which made its stock market debut in October last year, exceeded its objectives in terms of the acquisition of 100% developable land in 2017. In fact, last year, the company invested €123.1 million in the purchase of land with the potential for the construction of 3,172 homes, up by 27% compared to the forecast set out in its Strategic Business Plan.

Specifically, 66% of the land acquired by the property developer in 2017 was located in the Community of Madrid, one of the areas that is seeing the highest demand for new housing, along with Cataluña. This significant stockpile of raw material has allowed the property developer to protect itself against the shortage of developable land in the Madrid region, a dearth that is causing major inflationary tensions in the market.

The plots acquired by Aedas Homes in Madrid have the potential for the construction of 2,093 homes, which, added to the land that the property developer already owned, means it now has a portfolio of land with the capacity to build 4,300 homes across the region.

Completion of the first developments

The Community of Madrid is one of the main focuses for the property developer. The firm has now sold more than 1,000 homes across Spain and is on course to achieve its objective of 1,500 operations at the national level in 2018. The high rate of transactions has been reflected in the sale of entire developments in Madrid, such as Terrazas de los Fresnos, in Boadilla del Monte, and Phase I of Escalonia, in Las Rozas –Escalonia II is now being marketed.

Raw material without any regulatory or political uncertainty

The land acquired by the property developer led by David Martínez in Madrid, along with the entirety of Aedas Homes’ land portfolio, is completely developable, which removes any kind of regulatory or political uncertainty. In other words, the property developer remains at the margin of the land transformation process (from not suitable to its conversion into “developable”), which involves some administrative activities that take a long time and which, therefore, delay the processing of urban development plans.

The company has a total land bank spanning more than 1.5 million m2 ready for development and with the capacity to house almost 13,000 homes, which represents 84% of the units that it plans to hand over between now and 2023. Many experts rate its land portfolio as the best in the market “We are committed to quality and not quantity”, say sources at Aedas Homes.

Original story: Inmodiario

Translation: Carmel Drake

Santander Will Sell 4% of Metrovacesa to Blackstone

11 December 2017 – Eje Prime

The real estate sector promises to end the year in style. As part of the sale of the €30 billion in toxic assets to the US fund Blackstone, Santander is also going to sell a 4% stake in Metrovacesa, the property developer set that is set to star in the major IPO of 2018, according to sources close to the operation.

Specifically, the US fund has acquired 51% of the share capital of the new company to which Santander is going to transfer all of those toxic assets, whilst the entity chaired by Ana Botín will retain control over the remaining 49%, according to El Confidencial. The agreements signed to this effect include one to transfer a stake in Metrovacesa to the new vehicle.

The property developer led by Jorge Pérez de Leza plans to make its debut on the stock market in February, with assets worth around €2.6 billion. This move will be subjected to a vote at the General Shareholders’ Meeting on 19 December.

Moreover, the company has just signed a €275 million loan to boost its property development plan. With this financing, the property developer is seeking to optimise its capital structure and give viability to its business plan for the next few years, which forecasts the delivery of around 5,000 homes per year from 2020 onwards. Moreover, the plan aims to position Metrovacesa with a land portfolio worth €2.6 billion.

This new financing arrangement has a five-year term, according to the company, which plans to launch around 4,000 housing units in 2018. Metrovacesa will primarily use the loan to ensure the urban development of some of its land portfolio and the launch of certain residential projects.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Donpiso Will Open 50 New Offices In 2017

30 January 2017 – Expansión

The real estate broker Donpiso will open between 40 and 50 new offices this year, with the aim of strengthening its commercial network in the Spanish market. The company opened 30 new offices last year and brokered operations worth €375 million in total, up by 76% compared with the previous year (€213.4 million). In 2014, its brokered volumes amounted to €139.4 million. The company brokered 2,503 operations last year, almost twice as many as during the previous year.

Donpiso’s plans include having 120 offices in its network by the end of the year. Most of the new offices will be opened in the Community of Madrid, the Community of Valencia, País Vasco, Andalucía and the Canary Islands.

Last year, the most significant increase in terms of office numbers was seen in Cataluña, where the firm’s central headquarters are located.

The company’s expansion is based on a mixed model. Of the new offices opened in 2016, eight were owned offices and 22 were franchises. This year, the firm wants to maintain the same proportion, and whereby exert full control over c. 25% of its offices.

Donpiso, which recorded turnover of €7.5 million last year, will invest €2.5 million on its expansion plans, of which €500,000 will be allocated to opening its own offices and the remainder to its franchises. The company will recruit 120 workers during this process.

The company is also constructing 13 urban developments, all of which are in different phases of progress. Its developments are mainly located in Barcelona, as well as in towns in the Catalan capital’s metropolitan area, such as Badalona, Sabadell and Cornellà.

Recovery

The firm has enjoyed a progressive recovery since 2009, when the current Director General, Luis Pérez, acquired the Donpiso brand for €1 million.

The company, which was owned by Ferrovial until 2006 and by Habitat for the next three years, had a network of almost 400 offices across the Spanish market before the crisis hit.

Original story: Expansión (by E. Galián)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Supreme Court Places Thousands Of Homes In Legal Limbo

1 July 2016 – Expansión

The town plans for Gijón, Vigo and Marbella are the latest to join the long list of projects that the High Court has declared null and void, placing thousands of homes into legal uncertainty.

The real estate bubble is still causing problems years after it burst. In the last five years, the Supreme Court has ratified the annulment of several general town plans (PGOU) all over Spain, decisions that have continued in the last year with the High Court bringing down the plans in three other places, specifically, in Vigo, Marbella and Gijón.

These rulings make thousands of homes illegal, given that they were constructed in accordance with PGOU guidelines that are now considered null and void. What will happen to them now? Although the risk of demolition exists, it is minimal and the next step for the municipal companies is to draft and approve new PGOUs that include a process to normalise these buildings, which currently find themselves in a kind of legal limbo.

However, that is not the only negative consequence of this escalation in litigation, as reflected in the round table organised by two partners at Ontier, Jaime Díaz de Bustamante and Jorge Álvarez, together with Susana Rodríguez, Managing Director at the consultancy firm Aguirre Newman, and Antonio Pleguezuelo, Director of Town Planning at the same firm.

“The cascade of PGOU annulments is generating a considerable lack of legal certainty”, said Díaz de Bustamante, who insisted that this situation “deters international investors, who cannot afford to allocate their capital to an urban development plan that is subject to unstable regulation”.

But, what are the reasons behind all of these rulings from the Supreme Court, which are nullifying PGOUs all over the country? According to the experts consulted, one of the main reasons is the lack of communication and coordination between the different administrations involved in the preparation of the urban plans.

In this sense, Jorge Álvarez and Antonio Pleguezuelo requested greater coordination between autonomous communities and the central Government when it comes to defining the rules that are going to be applied, as that would result in greater certainty, in their view.

Delays in the process

Nevertheless, more concern and unease in the sector is leading to delays in the approval of urban plans, which, in some cases, is even resulting in changes in government.

For this reason, the experts at Ontier and Aguirre Newman insist on the importance of reducing the regulations relating to PGOUs. “The bureaucracy surrounding these plans need to be reduced so that they can be approved more quickly and adapted to the social reality”, explained Díaz de Bustamante.

Not surprisingly, most of the PGOUs that have been declared void by the Supreme Court in recent years had defects relating to the processing of the different reports required or to the sectoral processes, almost all of which are provided for by state law.

Original story: Expansión (by Laura Saiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The PP Stops ‘Operación Chamartín’ Dead In Its Tracks

14 May 2015 – El Confidencial

Ana Botella has met with opposition from several members of her own party regarding the progress of the largest urban development in Spain, which was due to involve an investment of almost €6,000 million.

“I would like to settle the future of Operación Chamartín…it would be a real shame if the project does not go ahead”. Those were the statements made by Ana Botella in an interview with El País on Sunday, in which the now almost former Mayoress (of Madrid) summed up her legislature. With this assertion, she responded to a question about what was left for her to do and what she would like to finish before leaving. However, despite recent attempts by BBVA, the main shareholder, to push ahead with the largest real estate development in Madrid, the project that has been renamed Castellana Norte does not seem to be able to get off the ground.

According to sources at the capital’s Town Hall and shareholders of Dutch (the property development company), an extraordinary council meeting will not be held on Thursday to approve what was going to be the largest urban development in Spain. That is because 14 May is the last logical day from a political point of view for the authorisation of the new partial urban plan that would have to include the extension of the Paseo de la Castellana, promoted by BBVA and Construcciones San José.

Botella, has tried to the end to convince other members of the PP to approve a project that has been blocked since 1993 and which, was going involve an investment of €5,974 million. Of that amount, €3,300 million was going to flow to the coffers of the three Public Administrations involved in the project – the Town Hall of Madrid, the Community of Madrid and the Ministry of Development – and so the interest of all of these parties was evident.

Those figures were announced at the launch of the operation, an act that was blessed with the presence of the Chairman of BBVA, Francisco González, the Minister for Development, Ana Pastor, the Mayoress, Ana Botella and the President of the Community (of Madrid), Ignacio González. From that photo, two of the politicians are no longer in their roles and the owner of the infrastructure is waiting to see what happens in the general election. “There is no other project like this anywhere in the world”, said the Chief Executive of BBVA, the primary shareholder with 75% of the developer’s share capital, who added that “I don’t know if it will be profitable for the bank, but it will be for Madrid”.

The Director of Real Estate at BBVA, Antonio Béjar, has been putting pressure on Botella until the last minute to obtain authorisation for the project despite the opposition from various members of the PP and the reluctance shown by the Minister for Development. (…).

From the ranks of the municipal Government, they say that the 2,000 complaints made by various groups less than two weeks before the municipal and autonomous community elections make the approval of Operación Chamartín impossible. The authorisation would have been used by the opposition parties to link the PP to the financial system and the so-called “casta”, especially if we take into account that some voices link the arrival of Francisco González as the President of BBVA with that of José María Azar to the Government.

Sources at Dutch are confident that Castellana Norte will receive support from the new local government that emerges from the municipal elections on 24 May. Above all, because they consider that it will represent a significant economic boost for the capital, something which, in theory, no one should oppose. That has been recognised half-heartedly by the various opposition parties, such as the PSOE and Ciudadanos. But at the same time, they recognise that the (likely) diversity of the next local government will make any agreement more difficult, especially if we also take into account that there will be general elections in November and that the project also needs to be approved by the Ministry for Development.

The Castellana Norte District project involves extending the capital’s main thoroughfare by 3.7 kilometres and creating a new area where 17,000 new homes would be build, thanks to the burial (move underground) of the train tracks at Chamartín Station. The macro-project includes a green area measuring 24 hectares, two business areas with the construction of several skyscrapers of up to 320 metres tall and a new stop on the local train network.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Agustín Marco)

Translation: Carmel Drake

BBVA And The Government Reactivate The Castellana Extension

2 February 2015 – Expansión

BBVA and San José will invest €4,800 million in the Castellana Extension / Covering an area of more than 3 million sqm in the North of Madrid, it will be the largest real estate development project in Spain. An IPO has not been ruled out.

Investment of almost €6,000 million, an area of more than 3.11 million sqm, 20 years of planning and another 20 years of development – those are some of the dizzying figures encompassed by the Castellana Norte urban development project in Madrid, also known as Operation Chamartín or the Castellana Extension.

“It is a very unique, innovative project that will result in the strengthening of the local, regional and national economy. It is the only project of its kind anywhere in the world”, said Francisco Gonzalez, the Chairman of BBVA, on Friday as he presented the plans for the regeneration of the north of Madrid, which has been paralysed for years and which will be the largest real estate development project undertaken in Spain in the last two decades.

The financial institution is the owner of 75.5% of the company Castellana Norte Madrid, the developer behind the plan. The remaining shares are held by the San José Group, whose own shares soared by 8.5% in trading on Friday.

Homes and offices

The project includes the extension of the capital’s main thoroughfare, the Paseo de la Castellana, by 3.7 km and the movement underground of the railway tracks at Chamartín station. 17,000 homes will be built on this land, of which 10% will be subsidised in some way; a financial district covering almost one million square metres will also be constructed.

The company Castellana Norte will drive the regeneration of this area, alongside Chamartín station and its adjoining railway tracks. Thus, of the total investment (€5,974 million), the company will spend €1,300 million on infrastructure and another €3,500 million on the construction of buildings. A long way off of the €11,000 million projected in the initial plans devised for the area in 2008. “The previous project was based on estimated revenues and therefore associated investment when housing was worth 40% more (than it is now)” explained Antonio Béjar, the Chairman of Castellana Norte. “The current plan addresses the shortcomings of the past and will involve a significant degree of self-financing”, he added. Sources of funding may include the entry of a new partner into the company, the use of bank financing and even the IPO of the company.

Construction of this neighbourhood, designed in four areas, will take place over 20 years and will result in the creation of 120,000 new jobs. “The project will generate economic gains of more than €3,363 million for the public administrations”, confirmed the Town Hall of Madrid on Friday.

The developers hope that the various government bodies involved in the process (the Ministry of Development, the Community of Madrid and the Town Hall of Madrid) will formally approve the project during the next few months so that work can begin on the development “at the end of this year or at the beginning of next year”.

Sustainable travel will play an important role in the new urban development, which will include three new metro stations, two train stations and 12.8km of cycle lanes. 80% of the 3.114 million square metres of land (just under the permitted buildable area) will be used for public infrastructure projects, including space for green areas equivalent to 56 football pitches.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake