Unibail-Rodamco to invest €130m in Barcelona

Franco-Dutch property group Unibail-Rodamco is to invest €130 mln in the redevelopment of the Glòries shopping centre, which is part of Barcelona's 22@ urban regeneration project.

Located at the corner of Barcelona's main axis of Avenida Diagonal and Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, Glòries initially opened in 1997 and was bought by Unibail-Rodamco a year later. The Paris-listed group plans to reposition the scheme to better integrate it within the city. The lettable area will also be expanded from 56,000 m2 to 70,000 m2.

Well-known Spanish architect Javier Mariscal, who designed the mascot for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, has been commissioned to create a new graphic image for the scheme, which will display a number of art works. Unibail-Rodamco is investing a total of €8 mln in the purchase of art objects.

Simon Orchard, managing director for Unibail-Rodamco in Spain, said this is a pilot project to test the attraction of art works in shopping centres and the impact on visitors numbers.

'Visitors need to have more than one reason to go shopping,' said Orchard. The company expects that the shopping centre will receive around 16 million visitors annually on completion of the project, up from 12 million at present.

Construction is planned to start in the spring. The work is expected to be completed during the second half of 2016.

Spain represents around 10% of Unibail-Rodamco's retail portfolio in Europe. The company owns a total of 16 malls in the country valued at €2.5 bn. In Barcelona Unibail-Rodamco is the owner of the 92,000 m2 La Maquinista, the 55,000 m2 Splau asset and the 40,000 m2 Barnasud scheme.

Christophe Cuvillier, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board at Unibail-Rodamco, said Barcelona is a 'priority for expansion and one of the key strategic areas for real estate in Europe'.

'We are open-minded about new investment opportunities in Spain if the price and the asset are right,' Cuvillier told PropertyEU. 'We strongly believe in the Spanish economy and we definitely see potential for further growth,' he added.

Glòries is located within in the 22@ area of Barcelona which is currently undergoing a major redevelopment by private and local public authorities including the transformation of the iconic Agbar tower opposite the mall into a luxury grand Hyatt Hotel. In total, the municipality has spent €180 mln to transform the Glòries district into the new quarter known as 22@.