Crédit Agricole se muda a un edificio de Merlin junto a la Puerta de Alcalá

Crédit Agricole will relocate its headquarters in Spain to a building at number 6 of Alfonso XI street, located near Puerta de Alcalá and owned by Merlin. The commercial real estate market in Madrid remains highly active. Crédit Agricole will move its central headquarters to the building at number 6 of Alfonso XI street, close to the Puerta de Alcalá, once it vacates its main offices at number 1 Castellana, which has been on the market for months.

Sources in the market inform Expansion that the bank is finalizing an agreement with Merlin to lease this property, situated in the Jerónimos neighborhood, close to the Retiro Park and the Paseo del Prado. The building was previously the headquarters of the Institute of Financial Studies (IEB), which moved to a new location in Aravaca in 2024.

After IEB's departure, Merlin extensively renovated the property, both inside and out, to accommodate its new tenants. The Alfonso XI building offers a total of 11,187 square meters spread across six floors and three underground parking lots with 126 spaces. This move will allow the bank to maintain its central location in one of Madrid's most exclusive areas while gaining additional space compared to its current location at Castellana, which has a total of around 9,000 square meters.

Crédit Agricole plans to relocate to the Alfonso XI building in 2027, after the summer, once the construction is completed. This move coincides with the sale of its current headquarters. As reported by Expansion in March, Crédit Agricole commissioned CBRE and Savills to sell its Castellana 1 building and search for new locations for its central offices.

Sources familiar with the situation tell Expansion that the sale process is ongoing, and the bank is evaluating various proposals. The initial valuation of the property was around 100 million euros, but the final price will depend significantly on its final use by the new buyers. The Castellana 1 building currently houses about 300 professionals from the entity and is becoming too small.

Therefore, Crédit Agricole intends to change offices to larger spaces and consolidate all key business activities in Spain. The bank has various business lines such as Crédit Agricole CIB (investment banking), Indosuez (private banking), Amundi (asset management), Caisse (asset custody and administration), and consumer credit, automotive leasing & factoring subsidiaries.

This further movement exemplifies the continued dynamism of the commercial real estate market. Another multinational moving is Naturgy, which is leaving its current headquarters on Avenida de San Luis 77 to relocate a large portion of its workforce to a new work center at number 48 of Josefa Valcárcel street, also owned by Merlin.

Over 700 employees are moving to this new building starting in early October. Most of these professionals were previously based in San Luis, while some will move from their Avenida de América headquarters to consolidate teams in the new facilities.