Spanish Property Insight › Forums › Spanish Property Forums › Spanish Real Estate Chatter › Edificio España, the Chinese investor Wang Jianlin of Wanda, and Madrid City Hall saga
Tagged: Edificio España, Madrid
- This topic has 17 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 9 months ago by
Mark Stücklin.
-
AuthorPosts
-
-
September 23, 2014 at 11:51 am #183324
Mark Stücklin
Keymaster
“Edificio España – 05” by Carlos Delgado – Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0MADRID — In June, one of China’s richest men, Wang Jianlin, bought a landmark office tower in Madrid that had stood empty for years. The Franco-era building, Spain’s tallest skyscraper when it opened in 1953, had become a symbol of the Spanish real estate market’s collapse in 2008.
The New York Times says Spain has an opportunity to attract Chinese investors, but not without some challenges on the way > read the full article
As far as the Golden Visa scheme goes, Chinese investor numbers are growing, but from a small base – I’ll publish the numbers later. However, I know for a fact that the Portuguese scheme is much more interesting, so Spain is failing to achieve its objectives with this scheme because it’s been badly put together. Very typical!
-
September 23, 2014 at 12:18 pm #183325
DBMarcos99
ParticipantHas work started on that Madrid building? Last time I passed by was in July and nothing had commenced. It’s going to make a huge difference to that side of town.
-
September 23, 2014 at 5:48 pm #183339
Mark Stücklin
KeymasterYes, I agree, it will really help lift the area. I don’t know if work has started yet, but I doubt it.
-
October 2, 2014 at 6:18 pm #183538
Chopera
ParticipantIf you can’t wait then there are some very nice flats in Torre Madrid next door: http://torredemadrid.propiedades-singulares.es/
I noticed that the top penthouse (that was advertised at €4,704,000) has been sold:
http://www.propiedades-singulares.es/madrid/edificio-torre-de-madrid-planta-32-vivienda-3/
-
October 24, 2014 at 10:35 am #183783
Mark Stücklin
KeymasterNews is that at least some of this building will be given over to luxury flats.
http://www.elmundo.es/economia/2014/10/23/5448b22aca4741e3708b4572.html -
July 26, 2015 at 10:41 am #187217
Mark Stücklin
KeymasterLatest news is that Wang Jianlin’s Wanda Group, which bought the Edificio España a year ago for €265m to convert into a hotel, shopping centre and luxury flats, has decided that it needs to demolish the building and rebuild it if the project is to be viable.
The previous city council said it would never allow the façade to be demolished. The new city council, which is left wing and by nature opposed to any private business, is also against allowing the façade to be torn down and rebuilt. They now say they will hold a city-wide referendum.
-
July 31, 2015 at 6:04 pm #187251
Chopera
ParticipantI read somewhere that Wanda Group wanted to take down the fachade brick by brick, and then rebuild it brick-by-brick. I guess because they either can’t do the internal construction they want without removing the fachade, or they’re planning on “losing the bricks” at some point later on.
-
August 4, 2015 at 5:23 pm #187271
Mark Stücklin
KeymasterI don’t know. I guess they just discovered it’s much more expensive to preserve the façade. Shouldn’t have come as a big surprise.
-
August 6, 2015 at 5:04 pm #187297
Chopera
ParticipantWhen you consider the building’s structure, you can guess their problem: it’s impossible to get a crane in there, or any large materials or equipment for that matter. The façade surrounds the building, and the building tapers towards the top. They need to remove at least some of the top levels to drop a crane down, but somehow they’d also need to knock out the floors first. It’s not like most buildings where you can easily leave the façade standing while you demolish everything else behind it.
-
September 14, 2015 at 7:36 pm #187502
Mark Stücklin
KeymasterYup, the work is tricky. Now Wanda are having a public ding-dong with Madrid City Hall about what to do. Wanda want to knock it down and start again, City Hall say no way.
In the meantime, Wanda have gone ahead and put up commercial signs:
The project they are working on includes and luxury hotel and 180 swanky flats, to sell for as much as 10,000 €/sqm, according to press reports.
-
October 21, 2015 at 10:58 pm #187822
Mark Stücklin
KeymasterIn the end it looks like Wanda will maintain the façade of Edificio España in its refurbishment. So it lost that battle with City Hall
-
January 13, 2016 at 6:03 pm #189047
Mark Stücklin
KeymasterRumours in the press today that Wanda Group are getting cold feet and might be thinking of pulling out of this investment / selling up, with ramifications for other big (potential) investments in Spain, like taking a majority stake in the Costa del Azahar resort development Marina D’Or. Spain desperately needs foreign investors like Wanda, let’s hope this story comes to nothing.
-
April 13, 2016 at 6:01 pm #190464
Mark Stücklin
KeymasterThe latest news in this saga is that the Mayoress of Madrid, Manuela Carmena, is making a big concession to Wanda Group and letting them at least partially tear down and rebuild the façade of Edificio España. That should make the development more appealing to the Chinese investor, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it leads to much wrangling over the details.
-
April 22, 2016 at 11:23 am #190585
Mark Stücklin
KeymasterUPDATE. Madrid says Wanda are satisfied with the City’s latest proposal, and accept the conditions, namely partial demolition of the façade. On the other hand, Wanda still have the building on the market. I doubt we’ve heard the last of this.
-
June 2, 2016 at 5:40 pm #191081
Mark Stücklin
KeymasterNow it seems Wanda have decided to sell the building but continue to work the planning side to add value and protect the price. Madrid Mayoress Manuela Carmena has said today that there are four investors interested in buying it off Wanda, who don’t want to sell for less than the €265m paid in 2014. This saga never seems to end.
-
July 20, 2016 at 4:02 pm #191898
Mark Stücklin
KeymasterMaybe this saga does have an ending. The news today is that a Spanish holding company from Murcia called Baraka has agreed to pay Wanda Group more than €265 million for the building. There is no news yet as to what the new owner plans to do with the building.
-
December 16, 2016 at 10:43 am #193979
Mark Stücklin
KeymasterReuters reported yesterday that:
Chinese real estate giant Dalian Wanda has finalised a deal to sell an iconic Madrid property, citing uncertainties over Spain’s market and the local political environment, the firm’s hotel unit said in a stock exchange filing on Friday.
Wanda Hotel Development Co Ltd (0169.HK) will sell the property to Spanish property developer Baraka Global Invest in a deal valued at 272 million euros ($283.15 million), it said.
The Chinese firm, which bought the property in 2014, flagged the potential sale in July after plans to develop the historic building into a luxury hotel ran into resistance.
Wanda Hotel said the disposal was driven by “the market and political environment in Spain and the resulting uncertainties” around the project.
-
June 3, 2017 at 12:02 pm #205040
Mark Stücklin
KeymasterWang Jianlin and Wanda have finally managed to sel Edificio España in Madrid,, reportedly for €272m to Spanish property company Baraka Global Invest SLU, having paid €265m for it back in 2014, so a €7m profit to save some face. Wand has reportedly lost $29m from the deal due to exchange rates. Baraka sold the building to the RIU Hotel Group from Mallorca an hour later , price undisclosed.
-
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.