The former gambling boss bought a 50% stake in the major development scheme last spring, thus making his first foray into Spain’s real estate market
Centro Canalejas Madrid, the luxury shopping and residential complex currently under development in the heart of Madrid, is on track to open its residential and retail areas by the end of 2019, developers have confirmed.
Spanish real estate company OHL Desarrollos is currently developing the €500-million property, with the project involving the restoration of a group of seven historic buildings located in the centra part of the Spanish capital. The developer owns half of the project, which has been dubbed as one of the most ambitious development schemes to have been undertaken in Madrid over the past several years.
Former PokerStars boss Mark Scheinberg is the other owner of the complex. The businessman, whose personal net worth sits at $4.8 billion, founded the online poker room with his father, Isai Scheinberg, in the early 2000s. As a CEO of the company, he had an instrumental role in PokerStars’ growth into the world’s largest online poker operator. In 2014, Mr. Scheinberg sold the Rational Group (parent company of PokerStars) to Canadian gambling giant Amaya (now The Stars Group) for $4.9 billion.
It emerged last spring that the Israeli-Canadian businessman has made his first foray into Spain’s real estate market with the purchase of a 50% stake in the Centro Canalejas Madrid development for €225 million.
On Track for Late 2019 Opening
In their latest update on the project’s progress, developers have said that the hotel and the retail areas are on track to open doors for visitors late in 2019. The hotel portion of the property will feature 200 rooms that will be managed by Four Seasons. The Canadian hospitality brand will make its debut in Spain at Centro Canalejas Madrid. It will also manage 22 private residences as part of the complex.
The property will also include 15,000 square meters of luxury retail space. The shopping area will be aimed at international clients and will look to rival popular shopping destinations such as Harrods in London and Galeries Lafayette in Paris. The shopping center will feature three floors. Two of them will house 45 stores offering luxury retail brands, while the third one will feature 17 different dining facilities for the gastronomic visitor.
According to estimates, the complex will generate some 4,800 indirect and direct jobs. It is also expected to annually attract 18 million visitors, of whom 6.2 million will be international tourists visiting the Spanish capital.
OHL and Grupo Villar Mir (which exited the project earlier this year) bought the area where the complex is currently being developed from Banco Santander in 2012 and began development work in 2014. Under original plans, the complex was expected to welcome its first visitors much earlier, but legal challenges hampered its timely completion.
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