The veto of the municipal government of Ada Colau to the expansion of the Diagonal Mar shopping center already has its first real economic consequence. Although the decision seemed to have been made since last December, the French multinational Fnac has definitively decided to close its store in the leisure complex owned by the real estate subsidiary of Deutsche Bank.
Although the official reason that the company alludes to is the search for a better location, “getting closer to the city center and facilitating access for its clients and partners”, the truth is that this movement has occurred just when the expansion of Diagonal Mar . Company sources deny that the transfer is due to the paralysis of the expansion, and that “it responds solely and exclusively to business criteria.” But the truth is that the store to which Fnac moves has a surface area that is 22% smaller than the current one in Diagonal Mar (1,225 m2 distributed over two floors for the 1,582 m2 it had up to now).
And it is that Diagonal Mar is experiencing a delicate moment. Yesterday the opposition in Barcelona asked the Colau government to present a report explaining the reasons for vetoing the conversion of seven cinemas and a part of the restaurant into leisure space and shops.
Precisely, the shopping center to which Fnac is moving is one whose works are already advanced and which were able to escape Colau’s veto due to administrative silence. The Glòries shopping center opened the first phase on December 1 after the global reform that began more than a year ago. This center is owned by Unibail-Rodamco, a fund that also owns the La Maquinista shopping center. Thus, Fnac will maintain five stores in Barcelona, along with Triangle, La Maquinista, Las Arenas and Illa Diagonal.
The council has always claimed that the expansion of leisure space in the center has been paralyzed so as not to harm small businesses. However, Deutsche Bank acquired this shopping center from Northwood last August for 495 million euros. The new owners acquired Diagonal Mar with the expectation of increasing its sales area by 5,341.92 square meters, to the detriment of the leisure area.
Unibail Rodamco declares war
The shopping center scene has an added background in Barcelona. The Unibail Rodamco fund wants to tighten the siege of Diagonal Mar, a shopping center with two decades of history and that requires a renovation of its spaces due to the certain decline it shows, compared to its most direct competition.
It happens that La Maquinista, Glòries and Diagonal Mar form a triangle in a radius of just 10 kilometers. Therefore, the French fund wants to follow its usual strategy, aggravate the situation of the complex owned by Deutsche Bank with the pressure of its two other commercial centers owned (Glòries and La Maquinista) and leave it as a residual center.
In fact, Unibail Rodamco already bought the Glòries shopping center at a bargain price from the multinational Continente at the end of the last century, and La Maquinista from Metrovacesa in the middle of the brick crisis.
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