The company, owned by Fast Retailing, the world's third largest fashion distributor, is in negotiations to settle in the old H&M on Gran Vía, located near Callao, according to Modaes.
The Japanese chain has begun negotiations with Axa Real Estate, owner of the property, to settle in the premises that the Swedish group left empty this year. The operation would unravel years of search by both parties: Axa has been looking for a new tenant for the premises for almost five years, and Uniqlo had long been interested in expanding its network in the capital.
The interest of the Japanese brand in the Spanish capital dates back to 2009, when Madrid appeared together with Barcelona and Milan as the main objectives of the firm to open stores.
Finally, Barcelona went ahead in the search and was the city chosen for the first Uniqlo store in the country, which opened at the end of 2017. That same year another was added in the Glòries shopping center, also in the Catalan capital.
The entry into Madrid had to wait two more years, until 2019, and it was not in the center, the preferred location by Uniqlo, but in the Salamanca district, specifically on Goya Street, where the Serrano Garden was located.
Then a third and a fourth store would arrive, both in Barcelona: in Pedralbes Center and in La Maquinista, where it was installed this year after the extension of the shopping center.
Axa Real Estate, for its part, bought the property at number 37 in Serrano in 2014 for eighty million euros and had been trying for years to find a new tenant without success. Finally, H&M left it last year as part of an adjustment of its retail network in the Spanish market that led it to also leave other major hubs of the country.
The building, which is part of the history of the capital, was built between 1927 and 1928 by the architect José Miguel de la Quadra-Salcedo Arrieta-Mascarúa and has housed the Avenida cinema and the Pasapoga party hall throughout its history. that passed Frank Sinatra or Ava Gardner.