The industrial town that became Spain’s e-commerce “Golden Mile”

9 March 2022

“Investing in a warehouse in Coslada is safer than investing in a store on Serrano Street”

A strong logistics centre has emerged in Coslada, a municipality of Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. It is attracting more investors than popular Serrano Street, known for its luxury flagship stores. Nacex’s operations chief, Pablo Román, doesn’t think there could be a better location in the Iberian Peninsula for a competitive industry where online shoppers expect fast delivery.

 The industrial park in Coslada does not have the charm of the Serrano Street stores nor the bustle in the streets of Gran Via in Madrid. Nonetheless, its warehouses have become competitors to these well-known retail destinations. 

 This and other industrial towns along the A-2 freeway, which runs north to south from Madrid to Guadalajara, have become desirable hubs for investors and companies looking to compete in a market where speed is crucial to success. 

 They were already a logistics hub before the internet, where retailers made weekly deliveries to the capital. Now, many purchases are made via Amazon and other online shopping platforms. 

 According to Román, very few businesses can operate out of Coslada, which experts are already referring to as “the Golden Mile” of online sales. “Anyone who can afford it has already arrived,” Román says.

 Nacex pays more than €150,000 per month in rent. According to Estrada & Partners, the cost per square meter of a location 55 kilometers from Madrid would be half as much. For Nacex, however, every kilometer counts.

Román says the company’s reputation for punctuality has helped it find a niche. The new Coslada center is not a warehouse but is rather a space designed for rapid loading and unloading. 

 Although retail sales in Spain are behind those in other European countries and the United States, there has been a surge in demand for the gray warehouses that line the A-2 for the past five years. As a result of the unstoppable growth of online shopping, foreign investment funds and real estate investment trusts are fueling the demand. 

 According to Martinez, some investors are concerned about the uncertain future of brick-and-mortar shopping, and these concerns are affecting even Madrid’s most expensive commercial street.