AEW buys Alcora Plaza in Parque Oeste de Madrid from Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs sells Alcora Plaza after they bought the asset in 2017 from IKEA and after extensively refurbishing the asset to transform it into a multi-tenant retail park. The Park is in Parque Oeste, in Alcorcón, it´s the largest commercial hub in the south of Madrid and is located next to the A-5 and M-50.

Alcora plaza was inaugurated in November 2020 with 16,400 square meters divided into fourteen stores, including a food court, leisure area and indoor and outdoor parking.  The retail complex is currently 95% occupied with an average weighted lease of 5 years. The asset counts with a highly diversified commercial mix of leading firms such as Lidl, Guaw, Milbby, TAO, Taco Bell or Popeyes.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management sells Alcora after having bought the land initially from IKEA in 2017 and extensively refurbished the asset to transform it into a multi-tenant retail park. The commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield advised Goldman Sachs in this operation, as it also did in the sale of IKEA. According to Cushman & Wakefield, “this operation proves that it is a good moment for Retail Parks showing resilience even after the pandemic and shows there are still opportunities for repositioning”.

Apart from Cushman & Wakefield, Goldman Sachs was also advised by Uría Menéndez (legal). On the buyer side, AEW was advised by Savills (commercial), Baker Mckenzie (Legal) and Hollis (technical).

The fund manager AEW has 1,100 million euros in assets under management in Spain alone, with 6 commercial real estate investments located in cities across Spain. Moving forward with AEW´s commitment to sustainability they intend to begin with several initiatives in this new development. Amongst such initiatives, there is the installation of photovoltaic solar panels, a BMS system and a stormwater recovery system. Additionally, to improve its existing ESG credentials they will aim to achieve an ISO 50001 energy management certificate and Cradle2Cradle certificate. The asset already has an EPC A rating for CO2 emissions and B for energy consumption.

Retail Parks have attracted an investment of €135 million in 2022

According to the real estate consultancy C&W, Spanish retail parks have attracted a total volume of around €180 million in 2021. In the beginning months of 2022, around €135 million have already been transacted in Retail Parks, and an additional €300 million are in the pipeline for this year.

When looking at the additional 120,000 sqm of new surface area in 2022 and another 160,000 sqm during 2023. The result is an increase of 8.4% until the end of 2023. These new surfaces will increase the commercial density of retail parks from 70 to 76/ 1000 inhabitants, however still below neighboring countries like the United Kingdom (158sqm/1000 inhabitants) and France (120 sqm/1000 inhabitants). In other words, there is still room for growth in Retail Parks in the Spanish Market.