New change of ownership for the emblematic Hotel Sofia in Barcelona. Blasson Property Investments and the French insurance group Axa have closed the purchase of the luxury establishment for 180 million euros, as reported by the law firm Cuatrecasas, advisor to the operation. Located on Avenida Diagonal, Hotel Sofia has a five-star category and nearly 500 rooms. This is the second major hotel operation of the year in the Catalan capital after Meliá took over the management of another iconic asset in January, the Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I, which will be transformed into the Hotel Miranda de Pedralbes.
Blasson and Axa have created a joint venture to manage the hotel, which until now belonged to the Canadian investment group Brookfield, which in 2021, in the midst of the hotel crisis caused by the pandemic, bought the main assets of the Barcelona chain Selenta ---founded by the Mestre family--- for 440 million euros.
Hotel Sofia reopened in 2018 after a comprehensive renovation and currently employs 260 people. According to Cuatrecasas, it is an operation "of enormous relevance" for Blasson, a Spanish management company founded by Francisco J. Meliá, Enrique Benjumea and Antonio Pan de Solaruce. This firm wants to reposition the hotel in the highest segment of the market and plans to carry out some improvements that will not require closing the establishment, which for now is part of Hyatt's international Unbound Collection brand. Blasson also owns the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Punta Negra and Kimpton Aysla hotels, located in Mallorca.
Hotel investment leads the real estate market
According to a report by the consultancy firm CBRE, the hotel sector has led real estate investment in Barcelona in the first quarter of the year, with 252 million euros, a figure equivalent to 34% of the total investment received by the city and 63% higher than in the first quarter of 2022. The global volume of real estate asset purchase and sale operations totaled 740 million, with a decrease of 32% compared to the record figure reached in the same period of 2022. Even so, CBRE points out that "it represents the second best first quarter of the last fifteen years."
In the housing sector, transactions totaling 190 million have been carried out ---representing 26% of the total---, a 72% decrease because a year ago an "exceptional purchase of 1,500 rental homes by the German fund Patrizia from BeCorp for 600 million euros" was registered. Finally, between January and March, Barcelona's office sector received an investment of 141 million ---a 6% decrease--- and the industrial and logistics warehouse segment absorbed 118 million, among other areas.
"The first quarter data has been slightly positive, as we expected a drop for this same period of practically 50% compared to the record figures of 2022. Despite this 32% drop caused by the macroeconomic situation, the first quarter volumes represent the second best data recorded in the last fifteen years. This fact once again demonstrates the resilience of the Barcelona market in complex environments," said the head of CBRE's Barcelona office, Xavier Güell. It is expected that this year the global investment volume in the city will be cut by 30%.