Retailer El Corte Inglés has sold its department store in northern Madrid to Spanish property firm Monthisa Real Estate for €150m in a sale-and-leaseback deal.
Monthisa, a developer and asset manager with a strong focus on residential, bought the building on Paseo de la Castellana in the northern city district of Azca for a yield of less than 4%, local press reports said. Under the terms of the agreement, El Corte Inglés will continue to occupy the centre for at least the next ten years.
The 17,500 sq.m. shopping centre is also home to a Bricor home improvements store, an El Corte Inglés travel agency and a 24-hour veterinary hospital. The store has three above-ground floors dedicated to retail and three basement floors, one of which is for retail, with the others for parking and technical services. The Azca area is currently undergoing redevelopment with El Corte Inglés also having acquired a plot of land in the area for a new shopping arcade.
Family-owned Monthisa has a track record of developing and managing properties in Spain in partnership with institutional investors and large international property groups. The firm built the 34,000 sq.m. Portico building in Madrid in partnership with US group Hines. Among other deals listed on its website is the acquisition of more than 500 assets from a Spanish bank alongside a major international institutional investor. The majority of Monthisa’s properties and developments are in Madrid, although the firm also lists an 8,000 sq.m. office property facing the Spree River in Berlin.