Vodafone quits HQ in Porto over maintenance row with BCP

Vodafone has left its Porto HQ, the iconic Vodafone building in the city’s Boavista district owned by the fund AF Portfólio Imobiliário (BCP) because it refused to carry out maintenance works on the façade.

The building was inaugurated 15 years ago to house all of Vodafone’s services, which until then had been spread out over four buildings in various parts of the city.
The building also has a Vodafone mega store on street level and has four floors of office space with a capacity for 240 staff.
The exit has occurred according to online news source ECO because of a conflict between the lessee and the lessor, AF Portfólio Imobiliário, managed by Interfundos belonging to Millennium BCP over works not carried out on the façade.
From January 2024 the company will leave the entire building it has occupied since 2009 and is worth an estimated €11.5 million.
According to ECO the bank, led by Miguel Maya, has refused to undertake works on the façade which is in a scruffy state and suffers from leaks. The move comes at a time when rents will go up by almost 7% from next year.
Vodafone has already begun moving out and the consultant Cushman & Wakefield is already looking for new tenants with both floor 3 (568,78m2) and floor four (530,87m2) are available for a monthly rent of €15m2 (exc. VAT) plus €5 condominium charges.
At the beginning of the second quarter of 2024 Vodafone’s new HQ will be the ICON Office II, which has a total area of 14,000m2.
The telecoms company will occupy part of a second office building that the developer Civilria is completing in Nó de Francos, and is part of a €100 million real estate project that includes another building which, since 2022, has been occupied by Ageas, and a residential complex with 168 apartments.