Florentino does it again: the reclassification of the sports city can inject a fortune into Real Madrid

MadridThe rezoning of the land of the old Real Madrid Sports City, at the highest point of the Castellana promenade and where the five tallest office towers in Spain now stand, was a great injection of liquidity for Real Madrid. As a result of that operation, the white club moved its sports city to Valdebebas, where the first team players currently train and where the club's other teams play, and where the Alfredo Di Stéfano stadium stands.

Now the move could be repeated, at least in part. The City Council of the Spanish capital has moved forward with the modification of the urban plan. As of yesterday, Wednesday, the general plan modification project is available for public information, which foresees a significant modification of the buildability in Valdebebas and the uses of the constructions. Currently, the regulations foresee a private sports use.

But the urban plan modification proposal includes a modification of the buildability. Now there are 360,000 square meters for sports uses, of which about 60,000 square meters have been built. The new project takes into account leaving 89,000 square meters for sports uses, while 276,000 square meters would become private facilities and 172,550 square meters could be allocated to tertiary services such as offices and hotels.

The result of all this, if the plan modification is definitively approved, is a clear revaluation of the land. In fact, a report by the real estate consultancy Savills, cited by the newspaper "El País", indicates that this area would go from having an almost residual value for current sports uses to having a value of more than 360 million euros. The consultancy's report values the area intended for sports use at 40.7 million, the private facility part at almost 134 million, and the area intended for tertiary uses at 185.5 million.

The City Council, led by the popular José Luis Martínez-Almeida, justifies the modification of the urban plan because in the total land to date only 17% of the maximum permitted buildability has been executed, which means an underutilization of consolidated urban land.

On the plot, the newspaper El País explains, 172,550 square meters could be built for tertiary uses, of which about 100,000 could be for offices and the rest could be for hotels or medium-stay residential solutions, local shops, and recreational uses. In the case of private facilities, there would be 110,000 square meters for sanitary use, for example a hospital, and the same area for educational uses, for example a private university.

Valdebebas is in the northeast of the city of Madrid, near Barajas airport. Very close by, the Madring circuit has been built, where Formula 1 will return to the capital of the State from next month.

Opposition

Some of the municipal groups have not taken well to the rezoning of the land. Thus, the spokesperson for urban planning of the socialist group in the City Council, in opposition, Antonio Giraldo, has said that they will analyze the operation, but has warned against what he has defined as "custom-made urban planning" and has highlighted that Real Madrid has found a business opportunity with a new rezoning. In fact, he has linked the rezoning to the "debt" that the City Council has with the white club after the failure of the Bernabéu car parks.