El Corte Inglés at Portal de l’Angel in Barcelona to close permanently on August 31 | News from Catalonia

Corte Inglés on Portal de l’Angel in Barcelona will close this Saturday, August 31, two years after selling the building to Redevco Iberian Ventures to transform the property into a multi-use building, the company confirmed Tuesday. The closure is part of El Corte Inglés’ strategy to focus its activity on its most profitable and largest buildings. In Barcelona, ​​the historic firm’s department stores in Plaza Francesc Macià and Plaza Catalunya on the corner of the Rambla have already closed. One on Avenida Diagonal and one in Can Dragó remain, one at each end of the city.

The sale of the building closed in 2022, and the new owner is preparing to “reposition” the building, Dutch property manager Redevco and US investment fund Ares said at the time. Historically, the 18,000-square-metre building over four floors was known to Barcelona residents and those who came to the capital to shop as Can Jorba, a popular name that persisted even when it housed the Preciados galleries. The street, Portal del Angel, is the city’s most expensive for commercial space (many in the hands of the Inditex empire) and is also commonly featured in lists of the most expensive in Spain.

As it develops All of Barcelona The offer from the Portal de l’Angel shopping centre will be moved to Plaça Catalunya “to make it easier for customers to find the entire offer”. “We are going back to the roots,” stressed the same sources, who specify that the leisure and sports offer (located in Portal de l’Angel) will now be restored in the center of Plaça Catalunya. When the sale was announced in 2022, it was considered one of the largest in the sector of the year and the largest ever in the center of Barcelona, ​​and was part of the retail giant’s plan to get rid of non-food -existing strategic properties.

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