Henderson Park has sold the 743-bed purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) currently under construction in 22@Barcelona, the city’s innovation district. The project has been sold to Commerz Real Capital Management Company acting on behalf of the Commerz Real Institutional Smart Living Europe Fund.
Henderson Park and Hines acquired the project in August 2018 and have subsequently progressed the development which is on target to be operational in time for the 2022/23 academic year. Once complete the accommodation will comprise 20,000m² above ground, and 6,079m² below, with a capacity for 743 students. The project will be managed by Hines’ property management team, via its aparto brand.
The 8-storey student accommodation building has been designed by architects Batlle i Roig, with 2,500m² of exterior gardens, 1,800m² of amenity space and 900m² of roof terrace with the aim to achieve LEED Gold and WELL Platinum certification. Henderson Park and Hines will continue to develop the building until completion.
Nick Weber, Founding Partner of Henderson Park, said: “We identified Barcelona as a market with highly attractive supply and demand dynamics for the student accommodation sector. Over the past few years since acquiring the site, we have worked together with Hines to bring forward two first-class institutional quality educational and residential assets. Our projects have made a positive contribution to the new 22@ innovation district in Barcelona, helping transform this neighbourhood into an international centre of educational excellence. As the projects progressed we received a number of offers for these assets with continued strong investor demand for high-quality properties in these sectors. We took the opportunity to accelerate our business plan via these early disposals. This latest sale to a well-respected long term investor marks a highly successful conclusion of our investment into this project on behalf of our clients. Our ‘Living’ focused residential strategy remains one of our conviction calls and we will continue to look for opportunities in this sector.”
Vanessa Gelado, Senior Management Director and Country Head for Spain, at Hines, added: “22@Barcelona is one of the largest urban regeneration schemes in Europe and is famed for innovation. We’re delighted to play our part with over 75,000m² under development across this dynamic hub with the student living project central to its genesis. Working alongside Henderson Park, we continue to focus on delivering these residences for the 2022/23 academic year and look forward to the ongoing property management of the site via our aparto brand.”
