An expert sets a price for the ‘La Perla Negra’ building that is higher than what the Board paid

A new expert report on the appraisal of the controversial Business Solutions Building, located in Arroyo de la Encomienda (Valladolid), the “most objective” of all, according to its author, places the market value of the property at 57.4 million euros (does not include VAT), which would support the thesis of the defenses in the ‘La Perla Negra’ trial that the Gesturcal company, which paid 52 million for the administrative building, would have saved almost five million euros.

The expert witness Álvaro Teodoro Abad, on the thirteenth day of the trial in the Valladolid Court, which investigates, among other issues, extra costs in said real estate operation and in the acquisition of land for an industrial estate in Portillo, has defended his report made on the 14th. July 2016 compared to others based on the comparison and the residual method, and, categorically, considers the value of ‘La Perla’ 57,401,861 euros, a figure without VAT in which includes financial expenses and various controls as well as the promoter’s profit.

In his statement, collected by Europa Press, the expert discards the comparative method used in other reports due to the difficulty of comparing ‘La Perla’ with properties with the same characteristics in its area of ​​influence, while considering that the residual method incorporates ” subjectivities”, something from which, as he insists, the expert report carried out by him is exempt when, as he adds, has had all the necessary documentation on the costs of the work.

Of course, although he understands that the invoices analyzed were “correct”, he pointed out that during his visit to the property he was able to verify that “there was an Asian luxury”, in reference to the cost of some executions, among which he cited a counter of almost 33,000 euros. “When I saw that I said to myself: how expensive, how expensive. It’s like someone who wants a super high-end car instead of a Renault. It’s an investment worth whatever someone wants to pay,” added Álvaro Teodoro Abad.

In addition to her assessment report on ‘La Perla Negra’, architect Susana Malavés, from Euroval and author of another assessment that she carried out on January 20, 2009, commissioned by Gesturcal, further raises the market price of the 17,000 square meter building in Arroyo to 64,832,000 eurosan estimate he made when it was not even compartmentalized.

The expert opinions of both experts have been favorable to the interests of the defense of the accused, by calling into question the thesis that Gesturcal had paid for ‘La Perla’ an amount much higher than what governed the market, as well as the testimony carried out by the expert Juan Alberto Martínez, who at the time complemented a study carried out by Price Waterhouse (PWC), but in this case on the acquisition process of ADE Parques on land in Portillo for the development of an industrial estate.

Land with “great potential”

In this sense, the expert has defended the estimate made by PWC as correct, which placed the price of the purchase operation of the plots between 30 and 33 million eurosin line with the disbursement made by ADE Parques to its owners, after highlighting that the land was rustic in nature but had “great development expectations” and “great potential”, given that the planning was already approved, its proximity to Madrid, there were five companies installed, including the Euronit “locomotive”, and it had an electricity supply line of 28,500 kilowatts.

In fact, the expert recalled that this area “already had an advantage” over the Canal de Castilla industrial estate planned in Cigales–it was never developed either–and he has not been able to specify if there was any other industrial surface in Valladolid with such electrical supply capacity.

For this reason, he has defended that PWC’s valuation of the plots was not based on the condition of the land as rustic in the face of these future expectations, an aspect that he compared with the real estate operation carried out at the time in Simancas by different developers who “They made farmers millionaires” with the purchase of rural land at a developable price and that due to the real estate bubble in 2008 it failed after the suspension of homogeneous areas in the aforementioned town.

“If we talk about a failed industrial estate, it is because expectations have not been met, although there are currently five companies installed there and the industrial potential of the land is there. In fact, if today we had to do a study of potential and a company was looking for a place to locate, the Portillo lands are a fairly coherent area,” he stated.

The expert has also questioned any expert assessment that an agronomist could carry out on the land because, as he has specified, the most accurate assessment is the one that an industrial engineer can carry out.

His statement thus refuted the subsequent expert opinion carried out by the agronomist Adolfo de Castro, whose assessment has not taken into account those expectations of industrial development but has stuck exclusively to the rustic nature of the plots and as a consequence of having visited an area where he claims to have found no trace of urbanization.

“No matter how many visits I have made there I have not seen that it had urbanization or connections”, also referring to the high voltage line carried from Boecillo to Portillo with an estimated and certified cost of 4 million euros.

The trial resumes tomorrow, Wednesday. The judicial process investigates the purchase of ‘La Perla’ and the failed Portillo industrial estate, operations that, according to the accusations, were promoted by the leadership of the Ministry of Economy and Employment with the purpose of benefiting certain companies (especially Urban Proyecta PM3 and Portillo Business Park) through public participation companies of the Board, Gesturcal SA and since 2008 ADE Parques Tecnológico de Castilla y León SA

The prison requests range between the 79 years as a whole that the Prosecutor’s Office requests for the twelve accused, the 221 interested by the Socialist Party of Castilla y León, as a popular accusation, and the 20 that the Board overall requests, as a private accusation, for eight of the accused.