Unicorn Royal Emirates will also build branded beachfront residences in Estepona and 28 luxury apartments in the city of Malaga.
An Emirati investment fund, Unicorn Royal Emirates, has acquired the Santa Marta hotel company for 40 million euros. The company owns a hotel project, designed in 2004 by Baldrich Arquitectos, and five-star beachfront residences in the municipality of Estepona, which it has never finished developing.
The project, located next to El Saladillo beach, one of the largest in Estepona with almost 3 kilometers of fine, slate-colored sand, will include a 160-room hotel and a series of luxury apartments based on the concept of “branded residences”, as residences decorated in the image of a specific designer or prestigious brand are known.
These brand-name apartments will range in size from 85 to 250 square meters, and will all feature a terrace and private rooftop pool.
The hotel rooms will be generous in size, meeting today’s requirements for a five-star luxury resort, and will feature large terraces overlooking the sea.
The hotel will feature a state-of-the-art fitness center and spa, guest pools and a children’s playground.
It will also feature a dining area typical of luxury projects in Dubai, with three international restaurants and a beach club unique to Malaga.
The project will create over 250 direct jobs and aims to attract quality tourism to Estepona.
According to Sergio García, CEO of Unicorn Royal Emirates, “this will be one of the most luxurious five-star destinations in the region and one of the first branded residential projects in Spain. Our aim is to create a space that offers all the à la carte services of a residential development of this type with the highest standards of quality, taking care of the human factor and the sustainability of the final product.”
Financement Xenia Capital, the alternative financing platform backed by Pacific Investments and funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. (Oaktree), financed the transaction with an initial senior debt tranche of 23 million euros.
Unicorn Royal Emirates, which has extensive experience in luxury residential and hotel projects, intends to lead the development of the project, which will require a total investment of over 150 million euros.
The aim is to complete the project by summer 2027.
Unicorn Royal Emirates is an Emirati-Spanish investment vehicle whose objective is to acquire and manage high-end hotel and residential properties located in key cities in Europe, the United States and Africa.
Unicorn currently manages over 500 million euros of real estate and plans to invest over 2 billion euros over the next three to five years.
Image of the 19 luxury apartments that Unicorn plans to build in Calle Moreti 3 in Malaga / UNICORN CAPITAL PARTNERS.
According to José Vicente Martín, Director of Acquisitions, “Unicorn wants to create a portfolio of hotel assets and branded residences that will be part of our portfolio for many years to come, which is why we are very demanding when it comes to acquiring properties”.
Other investments in Malaga Specifically, the Emirati investment fund is planning the construction of luxury apartments on Calle Moreti 3 in the capital city of Malaga, where it plans to develop 19 luxury apartments on Ronda de Cádiz.
The same Emirati fund is more advanced with another project in Calle Vázquez Claver, 21, where it plans to build 9 luxury apartments, also in the Ronda de Cádiz area of the city of Málaga.
