Barcelona strengthens its position as a global education and innovation hub. In a 22@ already full of innovative companies, technological multinationals, and educational and university centers, a new player enters the game: the Hong Kong University (HKU) has acquired a newly built building at number 28 Llacuna Street.
With this center, the university not only lands in Barcelona: it will be its first branch in Europe and, in fact, the first it opens beyond Hong Kong and mainland China. With more than a century of history, the institution is recognized as the second-best university in all of Asia, only behind Peking University, according to the QS Asia University Rankings 2025.
Globally, it also holds a prominent position: the same ranking places it as the eleventh best in the world. The university, moreover, has a wide international network of alliances, which includes double degrees, joint programs, and shared research centers with institutions such as University College London, Stanford, Cambridge, and Yale. In its current facilities, it offers training in fields ranging from science to art, including architecture, engineering, law, medicine, and business, and has around 40,000 students. Of these, 50% come from beyond Hong Kong, mainly from mainland China, but also from the international sphere.
With spacious and outward-focused areas, the property acquired in 22@ totals nearly 8,500 square meters, with more than 4,800 square meters of gross leasable area, which will include flexible and easily reconfigurable spaces, in order to adapt to the various uses they may host. The operation, for which the price has not been disclosed, was closed with the international real estate consultancy JLL, and had Bufete Barrilero y Asociados and Bird & Bird as legal advisors.
Designed by architect Víctor Bergnes de las Casas, the building features the gray of its structure, but also green: the property has nearly 1,900 square meters of patios and terraces distributed over several floors, crowned by a rooftop of almost 300 square meters. Known as LL28, it has LEED Gold certification, which recognizes it for its sustainable design and focus on user well-being.
"New opportunities for 22@"
The arrival of the prestigious university to 22@will contribute to the positioning of Barcelona's technology district as an international benchmark.In a 22@ that works forgive life to its streets beyond the business and office sphere, have emerged during recent months not only headquarters of large companies and technological projects, but also other universities and training centers, in addition tomultiple student residencesthat will be able to create synergies with the future campus, in its own ecosystem and consolidated as a pole of attraction for talent and investments.This is also defended by 22@Network Barcelona, the association that brings together the main companies and institutions in the district: "We celebrate the arrival of the University of Hong Kong to 22@, which reinforces the district as an international knowledge, innovation and talent hub", as highlighted by the entity's director, Isabel Sabadí: "This implementation opens new opportunities for academic and business collaboration, with a positive impact for the district and for the entire city".
In fact, 17 higher academic institutions are already present in the district, making it a benchmark in this sector in the city, just as it is in the business sector. So much so that one out of every three offices contracted in Barcelona last year was located in 22@. Moreover, the technological district "has led the contracting data in the first half of the year", according to the director of Capital Markets Offices at JLL Spain, Javier Fernández. If the trend continues, 22@ will close the year "with a transacted volume 30% above the previous year", according to him.
Thus, the operation "strengthens the good moment the 22@ district is experiencing", while reflecting the growing demand and dynamism of the private education sector. "It is a market that increasingly attracts more academic institutions in search of a strategic positioning in Spain", according to the director of Corporate Capital Markets at JLL Spain, Alberto Martull, in a sector in which Barcelona is called to play strong, with 22@ as a great asset.