Aena’s Real Estate Plan was announced last April and it should have started its bidding stage earlier this year, but the pandemic placed the whole process on hold. The plan includes the development of 2 real estate complexes, one next to the Barajas airport in Madrid, on a 200.000 sqm terrain; and the other near the El Prat airport in Barcelona, on a 300.000 sqm lot.
After shelving the project «for obvious reasons», Aena is now considering reactivating it in the first semester of next year. «We could reactivate the plan in 2021, but when I say could, I don’t mean to say that we have already taken a decision, but it would clearly be focused on the logistic segment», advanced José Leo, Aena’s financial director, to newspaper El Economista.
It should be recalled that the initial project was estimated at 4.264 million euro and it included investing 2.997 million euro to develop a logistic operations centre, a shopping centre (with a 341.000 sqm buildable area), hotels and offices in Madrid and 1.264 million euro in the construction of the logistic park, an e-commerce dedicated warehouse, industrial space and office buildings in Barcelona. It should also be noted that the company’s goal was never to invest alone, but rather to find a business partner with real estate experience, as was revealed to newspaper Expansión at the time.
Considering the current situation, which compromises the hotel, retail and office activity, Aena stated it is focusing on one single segment: logistics. «We are seeing very active logistic markets. It is a segment which remains strong and we have premium locations available», said Aena’s financial director during the same interview, who further recognised that this is one of the few segments which «is benefitting from the current situation».