CBRE Global Grows in Spain

By Adriana Pop, Associate Editor

Valencia, Spain – Hot on the heels of its recent acquisition of the Angel Shopping Centre in London, CBRE Global Investors has purchased another retail asset in Spain.

The Ribera del Xúquer shopping center is located in the town of Carcaixent, in the province of Valencia. The two-story property opened in fall 2005 and comprises a GLA of approximately 367,000 square feet (34,119 square meters), including a 139,000-square-foot (12,958-square-meter) Eroski hypermarket which was not part of the transaction. The center is currently 95 percent occupied and offers an attractive line-up of international fashion retailers including Zara, Massimo Dutti, H&M and C&A. Overall, there are 76 retail units and 1,900 parking spaces.

The final owner of the property will be a Luxembourg fund managed by CBRE GI, according to the Aura Real Estate Experts. The transaction marks the fund’s first foray into the Spanish retail market.

“We have acquired a well let [leased] dominant shopping center with solid property fundamentals. It is the first shopping center that we have bought in the Spanish market for this particular vehicle. We believe we are entering the market at a time where we can realize both income and capital growth for our investors. This asset already has a solid track record of good performance with sales and visitors remaining resilient through the crisis.  As we put our asset management initiatives in place, we will further improve the retail offer and tenant mix. We believe this shopping center will be a very strong performer,” Florencio Beccar, fund manager, CBRE Global Investors, said.

According to the Spanish Association of Shopping Centers, the seller of the property is a fund managed by the real estate division of the Swiss bank UBS. The purchase price is estimated to range between $39.4 million (€35 million) and $50.7 million (€45 million).

CBRE Global Investors was advised by CMS Albiñana & Suárez de Lezo.

Besides Carcaixent, the province of Valencia includes another 265 municipalities and is home to 2.6 million people. The shopping center is located in the northern urban end of Carcaixent, bordering Alzira, the capital of the Ribera del Xúquer region, where retail spending per capita is in line with the Spanish average.

CBRE Global Investors is the leading retail investment manager in EMEA with $16.74 billion (€14.8 billion) of non-listed retail assets under management, 736 retail assets (of which 85 are shopping centers) across 15 countries and over 6,800 retail tenants.

In Spain and Portugal, CBRE Global Investors has approximately $2.26 billion (€2 billion) of assets under management. The portfolio consists of 20 shopping centers comprising more than 13.9 million square feet (1.3 million square meters).

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