Eje Prime interview Urban Campus, our CEO John Van Oost explains about our expansion plans in Spain.

Interested? Read the translation of the article below or full article in Spanish.

The French company, which has two colivings, two coworkings and a foodlab in Madrid, is “very interested” in Barcelona, ​​is in negotiations to enter Valencia and Malaga and plans to reach Seville and Bilbao in the near future.

The company’s CEO John van Oost told EjePrime that the French company is making new & great movements in the Spanish coliving sector. Urban Campus will manage residences in Spain worth 150-200M € on behalf of institutional investors, to develop coliving spaces in Spain in the next five years. The company plans to build at least ten new centres in the main cities of Spain, that would add some 2,000 beds. The CEO added, “we would like to invest more and we have the capacity to do so.” Van Oost assured that the company has “big plans” for Spain and that they are currently in negotiations “to acquire four or five assets” in Madrid.

 

 

He continued to explain that the company’s investors have a great interest in entering the Barcelona market and are “very excited” to branch into the city. However, the Catalan capital has a “very complicated market” because of a decrease in prices caused by regulations that require dedicating 30% of new promotions to social housing, which has caused sellers to ” prefer to wait. ” In addition, he emphasises that the municipal regulations of Barcelona “are very restrictive with coliving” and that the council led by Ada Colau do “not understand what this housing solution is and how it works”. Continuing on this subject, the CEO repeated that coliving “is not tourist housing” and explained that the average age of their tenants is 32, with contracts usually lasting one year. In addition, he says that they receive “200 requests a week”, many of which come “from companies that want a space for their expatriate workers”.

 

 

So far the company, which wants to reach thirty cities in Europe in the next five years, has five assets in Madrid which consist of two colivings, two coworkings and a foodlab, a space that Van Oost has defined as a coworking for the industry of food, complete with an industrial kitchen. In total, the company has 120 beds available in the two coliving spaces, which total more than 5,000 square meters, with the two flexible workspaces and the foodlab adding another 3,000 square meters. Urban Campus dedicates 80% of its assets to coliving , and the rest to workspaces, all housed in new and completely renovated buildings.

 

 

“El Referente” a Spanish publication for entrepreneurs, wrote an article about Urban Campus’ Foodlab and how this new space is allowing gastronomic entrepreneurs to develop their projects in Madrid.

Read full article here in Spanish or find the translation below.

Foodlab is defined as a Coworking for gastronomic entrepreneurs, to help improve their productivity and launch their culinary projects, thanks to a supportive community.

Foodlab is the first project aimed at cuisine, developed by Urban Campus, the European startup, specialised in creating shared and collaborative coliving and coworking spaces.

This new space is located in Madrid. In it entrepreneurs from the food industry can create, test and start-up their businesses, without the demand of a large economic investment to get things going. Located in the heart of the capital, Foodlab has spaces to carry out ‘foodie’ activities, such as ‘show-cookings’ and tastings, and host events that help shine a light on emerging businesses. In addition, many of the Foodlab members distribute their food daily through delivery platforms, as with its professional kitchen it’s the perfect environment to cook without investing huge amounts of money on opening a restaurant.

 

Foodlab is defined as an infrastructure-level tool that improves entrepreneurial productivity because it allows members to have a coworking space and a fully equipped professional kitchen in one place, that can be booked for hours or days, adapted to the needs of each business. It also offers networking spaces where you can engage in conversation with other professionals in the sector.

Urban Campus currently has a community of more than 250 people who share ideas, resources, and contacts to launch or boost their businesses, depending on the phase in which it is in.

Read full article

 

Maxime presented Urban Campus’s project at the Maison&Objet conference, where he explained the challenges of creating flexible spaces to live, work & enjoy. He also talked about the impact on the modularity of furniture and how to extend the use of the space throughout the day, at this design, lifestyle & architecture-focused conference.

 

THE WORK! CONFERENCES – Nouveaux modes de travail, Nouveaux objets ? from MAISON&OBJET on Vimeo.

He shared the talk with Mathilde Maître (Head of Design at Fabernovel), Pauline Deltour (Designer) and Hélène Aguilar (Founder of “Où est le beau”). Some fruitful conclusions and interesting points were mentioned such as the flexibility, comfort and practicability needed in spaces nowadays.

Interested? Watch the full conference in French here.