Banco Sabadell's management committee has given the green light this week to the binding offer presented by Hines to buy the financial entity's emblematic tower on Avenida Diagonal in Barcelona. After months of bilateral negotiations, Sabadell has agreed to divest the building for an amount ranging between 80 million and 90 million euros, as confirmed by sources familiar with the operation, advanced by Cinco Días. The sale, however, is not yet closed, because it must first be ratified by the bank's board of directors, which will meet in the middle of this month.
If finally approved, the transaction will generate significant capital gains for the financial entity, which acquired ownership of the 22-story office tower in 2003, by buying the former Banco Atlántico. In parallel, the divestment will allow for recurring cost savings and increased efficiency for the entity, which will now concentrate all its central services in Catalonia in the corporate center it owns in Sant Cugat del Vallès. Sabadell's move, in fact, is practically complete, as during this last pandemic year most departments that were in the tower have already been moved to Sant Cugat.
The sale price negotiated by Sabadell incorporates the valuation of a very important clause in the contract for the bank: the entity has secured the ability to maintain its corporate brand at the top of the building practically indefinitely, so the property will continue to be associated with the bank. In addition, Sabadell will continue to occupy the ground floor, the first floor, and the 22nd floor, the highest, which it will now occupy under a rental agreement and which it will dedicate to representative functions and institutional events.
Hines' objective is to subject the property to a comprehensive rehabilitation, to adapt it to the current quality standards demanded by the office rental market. In this sense, the transformation project will focus on converting the tower into a sustainable building that meets the highest certifications in terms of environment and energy efficiency.
Most likely, once rehabilitated, the new offices will be put on the market to be occupied on a rental basis by multiple companies interested in establishing themselves in the heart of the city. The tower thus returns to its origins, since when it belonged to Atlántico, other companies were also tenants. One of the great attractions that this new real estate offer developed by Hines will offer will be the spectacular views that can be seen from the floors of the tower, located in a privileged position in the Eixample.
Sabadell will maintain its main office in Barcelona on the ground floor. The management of the Catalunya territorial division and also private banking teams will remain on the first floor. The 22nd floor will be maintained, which will perform institutional representation functions and house offices that can be used, for example, by the president, Josep Oliu, or by the entity's CEO, César González-Bueno, when they are in Barcelona. On the contrary, the bank is divesting itself of the rest of the floors, now almost empty, among which are the third, which currently houses the board of directors' room, and the fifth, which houses the auditorium where Sabadell has traditionally held its press conferences and multiple business and corporate events. One of the departments that already moved entirely to Sant Cugat last summer is marketing and communication.
The developer of Diagonal Mar
With the purchase of Torre Banco Sabadell, Hines reaffirms its commitment to investing in Barcelona, a city where it promoted one of the most transformative real estate developments in the city: the construction of the Diagonal Mar residential complex, completed in 2001 and which includes five residential towers, a shopping center, three office towers, three hotels and a convention center and a large park.
Founded in 1957 by Gerald D. Hines in Houston, the American investment firm operates globally in 240 cities in 27 countries, with assets under management of 160.9 billion dollars. In Europe, its asset portfolio is valued at 26.3 billion euros, in countries such as Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom and Spain.
Currently, in Barcelona, Hines owns other emblematic buildings such as the Mediacomplex complex, which houses the headquarters of the Mediapro group and Pompeu Fabra University, at Diagonal 177, near Glòries. This is a building it acquired in 2018 and which has 32,000 square meters. Another of its jewels in the city is the property located at number 17 Paseo de Gracia, the former headquarters of Banco Popular, for which it paid 90 million in 2017. The building was completely transformed and today houses Nike's flagship store in the Catalan capital and coworking offices of the multinational WeWork.
Hines also has two important projects underway in 22@, the district that concentrates the attention of large real estate funds. This is the T3 Diagonal complex, which will be the first all-timber office building built by Hines and the real estate company Henderson Park in Europe. In parallel, also with partners, Hines is promoting two student residences and an office complex with a buildable area of 30,770 square meters on Cristóbal de Moura street - in the so-called 22@ north.