Spanish independent real estate fund manager IBA Capital is understood to have signed the acquisition of the Glòries office complex in Barcelona’s 22@district from US asset management giant Blackstone for a price of around €120 mln.
IBA has joined forces with an undisclosed Middle Eastern institutional investor to buy the complex which consists of three buildings covering a total 21,500 m2 of space. The assets are more than 85% occupied to tenants including Kin, Sage, Kyocera, Gore-tex, as well as the Barcelona City Council..
‘With this transaction, IBA Capital reaffirms its commitment to the office sector and to investing in well-established, high quality assets in established locations, thus combining value creation with an appropriate and moderate risk-return ratio,’ commented founding partners Jesús Valderrama and Thierry Julienne.
Blackstone hired both CBRE and Savills Aguirre Newman to market the property in late 2020. Located on the upper floors of shopping centre Glòries, which is owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, the complex is situated between the Diagonal, Ciutat de Granada and Gran Vía avenues.
Blackstone acquired the asset when it took over Hispania REIT in 2018, as part of its strategy at that time to expand its hotel holdings in Spain. Hispania in turn had purchased the office from General Electric RE.
Last year the private equity giant successfully offloaded the 35,000 m2 future headquarters of ING Bank at Helios Business Park for €190 mln.
The buyer was advised by JLL.
