Inmobiliaria Colonial is already thinking about what to do with the historic IBM headquarters building in Madrid when the US firm moves out in 2024. Pere Viñolas, CEO of Colonial, said this week - in a meeting with the press on the occasion of the presentation of the first quarter results - that they are looking at different options, such as converting part of the building into residential.
"We are in the phase of studying alternatives," said Viñolas, "of various configurations", including converting the building into offices and housing. This option of residential and offices has already been tested by Colonial in its gigantic Madnum project under construction in Méndez Álvaro, also in the capital.
IBM will leave its headquarters on Calle Santa Hortensia in 2024, next to Avenida de América and the start of the A-2 motorway. The technology company will move to the Pablo Ruiz Picasso building, in the Azca area, to a building currently being refurbished by Merlin Properties. The part of the US company split off from Kyndryl (technology infrastructure), in turn, will move to the Los Cubos building, owned by the Henderson Park fund, in the M-30.
This Monday, the socimi presented its results up to March, in which it highlights the strong increase in rental income from its properties (offices), up 11% to 90 million euros. This jump was mainly due to the Paris market (up 17%) and Madrid (up 8%), compared to a 10% decline in Barcelona. The real estate company benefited from the indexation of its rental prices to the CPI.
Likewise, it reports a strong occupancy rate of 99.6% in Paris, since according to Viñolas there is no prime offer like his in the French capital; 97% in Madrid due to the strong demand and, however, 84% in Barcelona, "with a somewhat weaker performance".
Regarding profit, the net result attributed to the group up to March was 28 million, the same as a year earlier.
