Acciona completes major investment in Portugal

The Spanish infrastructure and energy group owned by the Entrecanales family has bought a plot of land in Olivais to develop a project worth €200 million near Lisbon’s Parque das Nações neighbourhood and Lisbon’s airport.

Acciona purchased the 42,000m² greenfield site from Estamo, the real estate arm of the Portuguese state, in a competitive auction process organised by government officials which had set a price objective of €34.9million. The Spanish firm finally presented the highest bid at €38 million in their boldest move yet in the Iberian Republic.

The plot is close to the neighbourhood of Parque das Nações where the Lisbon World Exposition was organised in 1998 endowing the area with various unique attractions including Lisbon’s Oceanarium, Europe’s largest indoor aquarium.

Close to half of the land which Acciona has purchased will be destined to future parks and landscaped areas, whilst the rest will have a buildable area of close to 71,000m² of which 50,000m² will be used for housing projects and the rest will have a variety of uses including retail space and hotels.

For this endeavour, the Entrecanales family have created an alliance with Clever Red, a company owned by Carlos Cercadillo, with whom they previously bought a plot in Barcelona’s Graça neighbourhood, to develop 100 homes as well as a refurbishment project.

This move demonstrates Acciona’s clear commitment to their decision to return to residential development following the sale of their rented residential portfolio, Testa, to Blackstone. In addition, the group has a growing global vision with a presence in Mexico, Poland and Portugal.

In total, the Spanish firm has a land bank with over 500,000m² of urban assets ready for development and ambitious plans to end the year listing 2,000 new homes for sale with over half of them located outside of Spain. In fact, as per Acciona’s residential strategy, Mexico has been identified as a major growth market and their subsidiary, Parque Reforma, plans to inject €450 million in the next 5 years.

Offices are also on the group’s radar and, last February, SpanishREIT.com published news about Acciona’s acquisition of the former headquarters of Banesto Bank, a complex with over 104,000m² of surface area in the northern part of Madrid.