Eight companies have passed to the next phase of the tender for the first logistics development area of the Airport City Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, whose award is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2022.
This was announced by the head of Aena's Airport Cities Development Area, Elena del Villar, at the international conference The Future of Real Estate in Madrid.
Despite the fact that the development aroused the interest of many investors, only eight companies out of ten that presented themselves to the first phase, of qualification, and whose term ended last November, have gone on to the next round. These are Prologis, Logicor, P3 Logistic Parks, Goodman, Panattoni, Selp European Holdings, VGP and Merlin Properties.
Area 1 comprises 28 hectares of land for development, with 152,914 m2 for building and four hectares for associated green areas, and is located adjacent to the first air cargo line of the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport, in the heart of the Henares Corridor, one one of the largest logistics hubs in Europe, with good communications, both by air and by land. This area also offers the necessary infrastructure to guarantee urbanization and its connections.
The second phase, adjudication, consists of the publication of a specific specification that only companies that have passed the first phase will have access to, with detailed information on the project so that investors can prepare their business plan and present their technical and economic offers. , as well as supporting documentation of its technical solvency.
In this company, Aena will have a non-majority stake. To this end, it is planned that the airport operator, as owner of the land in Area 1, establishes a surface right over them in favor of a new company created jointly between Aena and the investor as a public limited company.
Aena's contribution to this joint venture will be in kind, with a 75-year surface right, while the investor's contribution will be in cash, to finance all the costs during the development period provided for in its offer and, where appropriate, additional monetary contributions to balance the distribution of the company.
A 360 degree hub
In the presentation of the project, last July, the president of Aena, Maurici Lucena, highlighted that this project will serve to position the Madrid airport as a 360-degree hub.
The Airport City project encompasses a total building area of 2.1 million square meters associated with different activities. There will be a logistics node, with different types of assets, such as storage and logistics warehouses, crossdocking, BPO (business process outsourcing) or companies providing aviation services.
There will also be a part of offices, hotels and associated services for passengers and users, as well as another area for aeronautical and cargo activities.
The dimensions of the project make it necessary to develop it in phases, to ensure the enhancement of each one of them. For this reason, after this first tender, which prioritizes activities with greater demand such as logistics, which is capitalizing on new consumption habits and the rise of e-commerce, Aena will continue to progressively launch the rest of the areas that make up the Airport City until completing the total area allocated to complementary airport activities with a long-term time horizon.
With the aim of having design, sustainability and innovation criteria based on excellence, Aena has drawn up a White Paper with mandatory measures that set out the basic planning guidelines in the new development planning.
