Emperador Properties reinforces its only real estate asset in the city, Torre Diagonal One, better known as Torre Telefónica, with the telecommunications multinational being its main tenant, occupying nine floors. The Asian investment group will allocate one million euros to update the property, located at the beginning of Avenida Diagonal, in the Fòrum. The works have already begun and are expected to finish this summer.
The works will serve to renovate the auditorium located on the second and third floors, with capacity for more than 330 people. A gym will also be opened on the third floor. Finally, the terrace on the top floor will be updated, becoming one of the green roofs that the Barcelona City Council is promoting. A green area will be created, accompanied by sustainable elements for equipment and decoration, such as solar lamps. At 110 meters high, with views of the sea and Diagonal, the building's owners want it to become a space for their tenants to relax, but also for meetings and events, an option that will allow the terrace to be rented to clients external to the tower.
All these actions aim to transform the tower not only into an office space but also into a new leisure space. With a total area of 26,000 square meters, the building, designed by Estudi Massip-Bosch Aquitectes (EMBA), has a total of 23 floors, of which two are dedicated to a coworking space ---first and fourth floors--- and 18 to house company offices. Among the tenants are Ubisoft, UST, and Ingram Micro, in addition to Telefónica, which has its headquarters for Catalonia in the tower. Currently, the building is not completely full, with some floors free to be occupied. The remaining floors of the tower are distributed between the ground floor, where there is a restaurant area, the auditorium, and the terrace.
The new investment in Diagonal One Tower comes after the first actions carried out by Emperador Properties when it acquired the property in 2019 from Telefónica for 150 million euros, a price slightly above the approximately 130 million that Telefónica paid for the building to the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB) in 2015. The investment group disbursed more than two million euros to update the property, renovating the common areas of the office skyscraper and providing it with new services for tenants, such as a restaurant area, parking for electric cars, and changing rooms. It also took the opportunity to obtain Well and Bream international certifications.
A group also owner of brandy brands such as Fundador
Behind Emperador Properties is the winery group Emperador, owned by billionaire Andrew L. Tan. Also known as the Filipino king of brandy, the magnate owns Spanish brands from the Marco de Jerez as well-known as Fundador, Terry, and Espléndido. The Emperador group bought the Spanish winery Fundador in 2015 and, two years later, also acquired Garvey. That same year, in alliance with the family business González Byass, it acquired the Domecq and Pedro Domecq brands from the French multinational Pernod Ricard.
Its real estate subsidiary owns the Torre Castellana Emperador, in Madrid, formerly known as Torre Espacio. Emperador bought it in 2015 from the Villar Mir group. The group also sold it 49% of Caleido, the fifth tower of the Paseo de la Castellana skyscraper complex, with tenants such as the IE University campus, but also shops and movie theaters.