Tag: WeWork

WeWork Acquires Spacious Coworking Startup

2 September 2019

WeWork acquired Spacious, a competing start-up that turns restaurants that are empty during the daytime into coworking spaces. The two firms declined to reveal details of the transaction.

Spacious was created in 2016 to maximise the profitability of under-utilised urban spaces such unoccupied commercial premises and restaurants. Users can use the spaces as office space, paying 18.10 euros per day or 116.50 euros per month.

Original Story: Eje Prime

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

Socimi Lar Sells its Last Office Building in Madrid to Swiss Life for €40M

24 April 2019 – Idealista

Lar España has sold the last office building left in its portfolio as it continues its strategy to specialise in the retail sector.

The Socimi has sold the property located at number 27 Calle Eloy Gonzalo, in the centre of Madrid, to the manager of the Swiss insurance company Swiss Life for €40 million. The building spans a surface area of 6,300 m2, distributed over 9 floors with various retail premises on the ground floor. The upper floors are leased in their entirety to the US coworking specialist WeWork.

Lar España acquired the property, which was constructed in the 1960s, for €12.7 million at the end of 2014.

Following this sale, the Socimi can now focus on the 14 assets in its retail portfolio (shopping centres and retail parks), which will become 15 after the summer, once the Lagoh shopping centre has been opened in Sevilla.

This represents the Swiss manager’s second purchase in Spain, following its acquisition of 13 retail premises from Corpfin Capital Prime Retail Assets in July 2018 for more than €83 million.

Various high-profile consultancy firms participated in the operation, with Cushman & Wakefield advising on the buy side and JLL and Knight Frank on the sell side.

Original story: Idealista (by Ana P. Alarcos)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

WeWork to Launch its ‘Custom Buildout’ Business in Spain

28 March 2019 – Idealista

The US co-working company WeWork is studying the rental of entire buildings in Spain to dedicate to its custom buildout business. The service offers large corporations assets fitted out and managed by the brand. The company is already looking at potential properties in Barcelona.

WeWork now has ten co-working office spaces in Madrid and Barcelona (5 in each city), but its plan is to offer large corporations a new service that would house their headquarters and manage all of their needs, leveraging the firm’s know-how in the office management segment.

According to its business model, WeWork speaks to its clients first to understand their needs and desires. It then searches for the best offers, assumes the risks of a long-term contract and the capital investment, and manages the property for the company on an on-going basis, offering services such as fresh fruit, water and security, as well as events for employees.

In this way, the firm would start to compete directly with stalwarts of the sector such as CBRE, JLL, Savills Aguirre Newman and Cushman&Wakefield.

WeWork already offers this service to several corporates around the world, including Starbucks, Facebook, Adidas, Salesforce, Blackrock and Citi, amongst others.

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Hines Negotiates Rental of its Jewel on Paseo de Gracia with Nike & Victoria’s Secret

25 March 2019 – Eje Prime

The US firm Hines is holding negotiations with Nike and Victora’s Secret to lease the retail premise in the former headquarters of Banco Popular.

The investment fund acquired the property at number 17 Paseo de Gracia for €90 million in March 2017, and, after completing a €10 million renovation project last year, is going to lease the building’s office space to the coworking group WeWork.

The two retail brands are competing to occupy the prime store, which has a surface area of more than 2,000 m2 and which is being marketed by CBRE.

Hines’s portfolio in Spain comprises fifteen assets, of which ten are located in Barcelona and the rest in Madrid.

Original story: Eje Prime (by I.P. Gestal & P. Riaño)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

WeWork Doubled its Losses in 2018 Due to Global Property Purchases

27 March 2019 – Eje Prime

The US co-working company WeWork doubled its losses in 2018 to USD 1.9 billion (€1.7 billion), due to the huge outlay it made expanding its business around the world. Nevertheless, it did also double its revenues to USD 1.8 billion (€1.6 billion).

The company founded by Adam Neumann in 2010 closed 2018 with shared offices in more than 100 countries as well as rental contracts with several major corporates, such as Microsoft, Adidas and Citigroup, which account for one third of its tenants.

The valuation of the company, which leases space to 401,000 people globally, amounts to USD 47 billion. In Spain, the company has five spaces in Barcelona and four in Madrid, with new openings imminent.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Catalan Occidente Merges its RE Subsidiaries to Cut Costs

7 March 2019 – Expansión

Catalana Occidente is looking to cut costs by merging some of its recent real estate purchases, without impacting the entity’s business model.

Last year, the insurance company acquired Chezsuccess, owner of the Luxa Business Park in Barcelona, home to the headquarters of Amazon and WeWork, for €90 million. That firm has subsequently been renamed GCO Activos Inmobiliarios.

Catalana Occidente also bought Legión Empresarial, owner of the WIP office building in Barcelona’s 22@ district, for €20 million.

Now it is merging its two subsidiaries, which means that all of the acquired assets will be grouped together in GCO Activos Inmobiliarios.

In total, the insurance group’s real estate assets were worth €1.4 billion at the end of 2018, accounting for 12% of its investment portfolio. Fixed income securities represented 59% (€6.6 billion) of the total and equities 11% (€1.3 billion).

Original story: Expansión (by E.d.P)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Coworkings: the New King of the Real Estate Sector

15 February 2019 – Eje Prime

Millennials, flexibility, start ups…All of the socio-demographic trends are inevitably leading to one common place: coworking offices. Flexible workspaces have become the great promise of the real estate sector but their largest operator, IWG, generates just 15% of its revenues from them and WeWork is multiplying its losses year after year. What risks does the model have? Can it withstand a recession without the guarantee of the traditional five years of mandatory occupancy? And what if Amazon and Facebook, its tenants of today, end up becoming its main competition?

In 2017 alone, the total volume of flexible workspace in the twenty largest markets around the world grew by 30%, equivalent to 1 million m2. Since 2014, the sector has doubled, and in cities such as London, they account for 20% of the office space leased, according to a report from JLL. In Barcelona, that figure already amounts to 12%.

The consultancy firm forecasts that the European stock will grow by between 25% and 30% per annum on average over the next five years and will account for 30% of some corporate real estate portfolios by 2030. But those predictions hide the major challenges that are threatening the great promise of the sector.

One of the main challenges facing the model is that the operator is tied to a given property for at least five years, like in the case of a traditional office, but its tenants have contracts that last for months or even hours. When the next crisis hits, what guarantees does the owner have that the operator will be able to continue paying the rent?

“On paper, that does seem like a risk, but the reality is that the coworking phenomenon was launched during the crisis”, explain sources at Savills Aguirre Newman. All sectors suffer when there is a recession, but traditional offices are hit harder because whoever cannot bear those costs can afford a coworking space”, argue the sources at the consultancy firm.

Another of the risk factors is that coworking offices have capitalised on the lack of available office space in the centre of cities and also, on the shortage of appropriate spaces for the new ways of working within traditional companies (…).

“The players driving the sector are multi-nationals that are looking for appropriate spaces for their innovation teams or for project-based work”, says Manel de Bes, Director of the Office department at Forcadell.

But, what will happen when the offices of these large companies have adapted to the new scenario? “At the moment, most companies are in the experimental phase; if they consider that the trials do not meet their needs, they will be able to return to more conventional models”, explains JLL’s report (…).

From rock star to conservative player

Within the coworking phenomenon, the rock star is WeWork. The New York-based company, which became the largest lessee of offices in its home city last year, is worth USD 20 billion, but it recorded losses of USD 723 million in the first half of last year.

“Its model is based on taking over the best buildings, in the most prime areas and then competing with other operators on price: it is not sustainable”, argues a competitor in the sector. “Sooner or later, they will have to raise their prices”, he assures.

IWG’s model is more conservative. That firm has an umbrella of five brands and thirty years of history. “We have gone through three or four cycles and we cover our backs: first, by diversifying in terms of the type of tenant to minimise risk. We also ask the owners to invest and we do not select the best buildings or at any price”, said Philippe Jiménez, head of the group in the Spanish market (…).

De Bes from Forcadell forecasts that “Over the medium term, just four or five operators will remain: those that lease 200 m2 or 400 m2 in secondary areas will exit the market”. In fact, the market is already becoming more concentrated: since 2015, the five most important operators have accounted for 50% of all of the new flexible workspace in Europe (…).

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

Translation: Carmel Drake

WeWork to Open 8,300m2 of Shared Office Space in Barcelona’s 22@ District

2 February 2019 – Expansión

The US co-working giant WeWork is going to open a new office in Barcelona next spring. The company is going to occupy one of the three buildings in the Platinum@Bcn complex, located on Calle Pallars 194-198 and owned by the family property developer Barcelonesa de Imuebles.

The block chosen by WeWork comprises 10 floors and has a surface area of 8,300 m2. With this new commitment, WeWork will have five co-working centres in the Catalan capital, two of which have been inaugurated in recent months.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Corestate Teams up with Medici Living to Invest €200M in Co-Living Homes

17 December 2018 – Eje Prime

Corestate Capital is launching itself in the residential co-living market in conjunction with Medici Living. The Luxembourg-based fund manager has joined forces with the German provider of spaces to invest €200 million in the development of shared residences across Spain, according to explanations provided by sources close to the operation speaking to Eje Prime.

The plans of the two groups in Spain form part of an expansion target at the European level. In fact, over the next three to five years, Corestate and Medici Living are planning to invest €1 billion in the development and purchase of around thirty co-living properties, containing 6,000 rooms in total, located in Austria, Poland, Switzerland and Spain.

Barcelona, Madrid and Sevilla are the cities that the joint venture has chosen for its debut in the Spanish market. In those regions, they forecast investment of between €20 million and €60 million. For the time being, the intention of the companies involves acquiring seven buildings in Spain, with 1,190 rooms in total.

Corestate is responsible for the investment, project development, financing and management of its assets. Meanwhile, Medici Living takes care of the design and operation of the properties, according to reports by the company, which already has a portfolio of 1,800 rooms and a presence in Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

It is the largest operation undertaken to date in the European co-living market. In fact, it is a sector with a great deal of potential on the Old Continent, aimed at people looking for professional environments and collaborative lives, where they can share ideas and experiences. Currently, most of these assets are located in Anglo-Saxon countries and they are expected to become one of the alternatives for affordable living in large cities.

“The arrival of investment to the shared accommodation sector represents a great step forward for the European residential market”, said Gunther Schmidt, CEO at Medici Living, who stresses in a statement that, as a company, they have set themselves the objective of becoming the WeWork of co-living.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Corestate Capital, Michael Bütter, confirmed that “demand for shared residential spaces is increasingly motivated by the desire of young people to work and live in different cities and to do so in a community”. Moreover, according to the executive, “they are low-risk operations that generate great returns”.

In addition, with this agreement, the Luxembourg fund manager is diversifying its commitment in Spain after announcing its investment plan for student halls of residence next year. Corestate is planning to allocate €100 million to the construction of those types of assets and is currently searching for land in Valencia, Sevilla and Bilbao, as revealed by Christopher Hütwohl, the head of the company in the country, speaking to Eje Prime.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Berta Seijo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Excem to Promote 5,000 Luxury Homes in the Costa del Sol & Murcia

21 November 2018 – Eje Prime

Excem is increasing its commitment to the luxury residential sector. The company owned by the Hatchwell family has set itself the objective of promoting 5,000 luxury homes on the Costa del Sol and Murcia, within the context of the development of its LOV Real Estate division. To launch these homes, which will follow in the footsteps of a development on Calle Fuencarral in Madrid, Excem has created the brand Solomon Homes.

Excem’s plans with LOV Real Estate involve starting to promote its entire land bank in 2019. The first projects to be commercialised in the south include four promotions in Condado de Alhama, one of the best resorts on the Costa Cálida. In that complex, LOV has already started work on the construction of Villa Primavera, Villa Amapola and Villa Atardecer, as well as Edificio Poniente. The company plans to hand over those homes next summer.

Further south, on the Costa del Sol, the property developer is finalising the signing of several projects with “the same model of avant-garde and unique architecture” in the area, on the fashionable coastline of the Spanish residential market. The company expects to achieve a return of more than 20% in each of its projects.

The starting point for luxury

Nevertheless, Excem’s starting point with LOV Real Estate will be a 25-home development on Calle Fuencarral in Madrid. The group’s first development will involve an investment of €14 million and will be located at number 142 of the Madrilenian street, right in the heart of the Spanish capital.

The company has already started work and its pre-sales amount to 80% with just four homes left to market. The buyers include investors and architects, explain sources at Excem (…).

The property developer plans to handover those homes, which will have between one and three bedrooms, before the end of 2019. The homes will have surface areas ranging from 55 m2 to 175 m2, and prices starting at €400,000, and going up to €1.5 million (…).

Excem: true to its roadmap 

The last investment vehicle launched by Excem Real Estate, the real estate division of the Excem Group, was Siwork, specialising in co-working and for which the group has partnered with WeWork, as Eje Prime revealed. With Excem Capital Partners Siwork, the group stays true to its roadmap: to be present in the Spanish real estate sector with three Socimis, diversified by type of asset and focused on millennial clients.

The first of the three companies launched by the Israeli family in Spain was Excem Capital Partners Sociedad de Inversión Residencial. Specialising in rental housing aimed at millennials, the company debuted on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) in July worth €17 million. Currently, the company owns 28 assets in Spain and has several shareholders ranging from private investors to business people and family offices.

Besides Excem Capital Partners Sociedad de Inversión Residencial, the Hatchwell family also operates in the Spanish real estate sector with Situr, a firm specialising in tourist properties such as apartments and hostels. The investment target for this second Socimi is approximately €250 million between now and the rest of 2018. The company has set itself the objective of having 3,500 beds in a dozen buildings, located primarily in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as in other tourist cities around the country.

With the activation of Siwork, the plans for this new company involve carrying out an investment of €200 million to acquire a dozen buildings in Spain’s main cities.

The Hatchwell family’s links with the real estate world date back to the beginning of the 1970s, when Mauricio Hatchwell Toledano founded the group, specialising first in cement and later in technology and real estate. Nowadays, the company is led by his children David, Philip and Kareen Hatchwell Altaras.

Original story: Eje Prime (by J. Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake