Frey increases its bet on Spain with the acquisition of Parque Mediterráneo

French group Frey has bought one of the largest retail parks in Spain for 83 million euros from Sociedad Industrial Cartagenera de Desarrollo, S.L., a group of private investors.

Just after acquiring Finestrelles a few days ago, Frey strikes again by purchasing one of the largest commercial parks in Spain, Parque Mediterráneo, in Cartagena. This deal demonstrates Frey’s strong appetite for Spanish retail real estate.

Frey has financed the transaction with its own equity days after acquiring Finestrelles in Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona) for 127,5 million euros.

Parque Mediterráneo is located 5km kilometers from Cartagena, a port city inside the region of Murcia with a GLA of 44,267sqm. The competitive advantage of this retail park definitely resides in the fact that it is the largest complex found in Murcia’s coast which counts with over 400.000 citizens in less than a 30-minute drive time from the complex. In addition, the closest competitor is located more than 45km away.

Frey has been advised by Pérez-Llorca and Arcadis, while CBRE advised the sellers.

Frey´s objective is to completely modernize the complex and in doing so increasing customer experience and satisfaction rates through more efficient design and more green areas. Inside Parque mediterraneo you can find top tier tenants from different sectors such as food, fashion, sports chains like Carrefour, leroy Merlin, Decathlon and Media Markt. All these tenants represent a guaranteed annual rent of more than 6 million euros with the actual occupation rate of 94%, it also counts with the possibility of expanding the park´s surface area by 6,000 sqm.

With four assets in their portfolio and one under development, Frey has consolidated its presence in the Iberian peninsula. Frey is a developer, asset manager and specialized investor in commercial parks located around France, Spain and Portugal. «This transaction marks the acceleration of our strategy to expand and fulfill our ambition of becoming a European leader in sustainable commerce«, explains Antoine Frey, President and CEO of Frey.

Retail Revival

These transactions coincide with the revival of retail. Among the transactions to highlight are; the acquisition of Torrecárdenas (Almería) for 163 million euros, finished last March; Bahía Real (Santander), acquired by Savills IM from the developers Citygrove and Burlington for 60 million euros and Alcora Plaza (Alcorcón, Madrid), sold to AEW for 50 million euros and Rosaleda (Málaga) acquired by Carmila for 25 million euros.

Following this, El Corte Inglés has engaged in divesting one of its prized assets, a large property in Portal de l´Angel in Barcelona for 200 million euros. Redevco, Ares and Orion are some of the names behind the competition of who are expected to buy this demanded asset.

Investor interest in retail seems to have enjoyed somewhat of a comeback after 2 years and a half of gloomy days due to COVID. According to CBRE´s Retail Index from January to May this year the sales volume of these types of properties has increased by 27%, just 5,5% below 2019 levels. Nevertheless, industry sources worry about the dampening of demand for retail given the current inflationary environment.

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