Barings provides €40M loan to Kronos for Seville Retail Project

Barings has announced that it has provided, on behalf of one of its managed accounts, a €40 million senior construction loan to finance the development of a retail park in Dos Hermanas, located outside of Seville which is expected to open in summer 2020.

The 36-month loan, which has been provided to a joint venture between Kronos Investment Group and a global investment management company, will fund the construction of a 64-unit, 48,646m² retail park, with 2,000 parking spaces, including electric car charging stations. The retail park development is expected to include fashion, DIY, furniture & décor and around 20% of the scheme will be dedicated to leisure.

The project is over 70% pre-let, ground and infrastructure works have been completed and full planning and building permissions have been obtained.

The plot is surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and conveniently located close to the town centre of Dos Hermanas next to a complementary Factory Outlet, a Carrefour hypermarket with retail gallery and a cinema with retail boxes in Divercentro Zona Dos.

Dos Hermanas has a population of 133,000 and is located 15km from the centre of Seville, Spain’s fourth largest city. The development is being positioned as the new town centre, providing much needed new leisure and food and beverage offerings and an “events plaza”, to ensure it is relevant to current consumer trends.

Seville’s retail warehousing offer is dispersed outside the SE-30 ring road and located within relatively small-scale retail parks. In the south and south east of Seville, the most similar scheme to Kronos’ planned retail park in Dos Hermanas is Parque Guadaíra although its design is slightly outdated and doesn’t offer a family leisure component but rather relies on its neighbouring scheme to complement it with a Cinema.

Ben Silver, Head of Global Real Estate Debt, Barings, said, “This is our latest loan to close in Western Europe as we continue to build our global debt platform. We are excited to be part of real estate transactions like Dos Hermanas and look forward to seeing opportunities from similar Sponsors.”

Sam Mellor, Head of Real Estate Debt Portfolio Management and Origination – Europe, Barings, added, “Dos Hermanas is a growing dormitory town close to Seville and this loan will enable the construction of the dominant retail scheme for the immediate and undersupplied catchment area. The strength of the project is evidenced by the high demand for the space, which is already substantially pre-let.”