A retirement, a closure and several forced movements. That is the destination of all the lives that until now converged at number 20 of the Plaza de Tirso de Molina, entrance point (or exit) to the Lavapiés neighborhood, in the center of Madrid. The purchase of the building by a real estate fund, Buildings & Flats Real Estate SL, will radically reconfigure the fabric of the block with the closure of the mythical Asador restaurant La Carpa, the end of the Montaloya hostel and the march of around a dozen families.
The objective of this company is to dedicate this residential building completely to tourist accommodations, as revealed by a consultation made to the Madrid City Council last February, which the Almeida government resolved in a favorable way. It is also pointed out by some neighbors in the neighborhood, and they are not denied sources of the hostel consulted by Somos Lavapiés. A person from the workforce of this business, who occupies the bass and the third left, confirms that the end of his activity has already been transferred to the team and will be executed “very soon.” He regrets that now “there will be no other than to look for work.”
Who should not devote to it is Manuel Moreno, the owner of the tent. At 76, he has agreed with the new owner entity to terminate his lease and proceed to a retirement that he had postponed for his hospitality passion. One of Manuel’s children attends to this newspaper, although he prefers not to deepen the details of the purchase of the block or the termination of the rent. “It is better to ask the neighbors or in the hostel,” he argues.
The place still remains open in certain intervals, although not to offer coffees or menus, but for the liquidation of materials, drinks and even football relics that the Moreno family is carrying out. Numerous posters on the facade and the restaurant door indicate it, which does not finish preventing some bar regular from approaching their traditional morning coffee.
This is the case of Sonsoles, which after not being able to access the tent comments the situation with another neighbor of Lavapiés. “I just found out what it closes. It’s a shame, they made the best coffee in the neighborhood,” he says in conversation with this newspaper. It sympathizes especially with the template, especially “with a waiter who is a real wonder, a professional of those who are no longer left.” For Sonsoles, the closure of this restaurant with decades of history illustrates “everything that is changing in the landscape and the countryman of Lavapiés.”
Samples of sadness (or nostalgia) have been seen on social networks: “It cannot be! Nor two weeks ago we were taking something in that bar,” a resident of the neighborhood published a few weeks ago on social networks. He did it in response to an X post (formerly Twitter) that denounced the closure of one of “those classic bars that resisted gentrification.” For @Madriddecadent, “with its disappearance another emblematic bar of that Madrid is lost that gradually leaves us.” A trend that adds to that of other establishments that have recently lowered the blind such as the Santamaría de Arganzuela Café, the Malasaña Barco or the good taste, the Chinese restaurant for the oldest Chinese Chinese in the capital.
As for the Tirso de Molina 20 tenants, they prefer to remain silent. “We are all going,” Declared one of the residents of the Xlavapiés digital mediumwho also speaks of important “economic incentives” to residents who leave their homes before even the deadline that marks their contracts.
A strategy that seems to be taking effect, given the scarce or no neighborhood mobilization in the block. Not surprisingly, some of the floors are already operating as tourist accommodations. One of the users of these apartments confirms it to Somos Lavapiés, who accesses him after spending the morning watching the center of Madrid. The tourist, of Russian origin, says not to know if there are other homes already working as tourist floors in addition to the one he is using as a lodging a few days.
Tourist and commercial operation covered by the new Almeida regulations
With this situation, this building erected in 1880 is heading to start a new stage focused on one of the most lucrative and extended businesses in the center of Madrid. Seven plants and more than 2,000 square meters that, due to their privileged location at ten minutes walk from the Puerta del Sol, are a reef for the Buildings & Flats Real Estate real estate background. The entity bought the property from the nephew of the previous owner after the death of this.
This limited company based in the Madrid municipality of Alcobendas was constituted less than two years ago, on May 5, 2023. Its administration coincides, however, with that of other real estate promoters of greater experience that operate with a similar model: Mator Investments SL (founded in 2012) and practical real estate Totemoi SL (in 2021).
Buildings & Flats Real Estate plans seem to go stern to the closure of the two businesses and the progressive march of the tenants, but there is a last stumbling block to overcome: the use of the property is cataloged as a residential, although the hostel and the bar had their presceptive licenses. In this way, the property must modify it to tertiary (commercial) use of lodging if you want to reconvert it in housing for tourist use (VUT), something already endorsed by the municipal urbanism area in a consultation answered on February 19 and that has had access to this newspaper.
With the current municipal regulations, this building could only become a hotel if the promoter company requested a special plan, which would have to be validated by the City Council whenever the current suspension of new lodging licenses was lifted. But the legislation launched by the City Council led by José Luis Martínez-Almeida will facilitate the operation thanks to the Reside Plan, which is like the urban planning area has called its last normative change in the matter. The Molina 20 Tirso building may become a full tourist accommodation through a simple license, having level 3 of protection and being in the APR 00.01 of Madrid (the historic center).
The massive conversion of whole buildings to tourism in the center of Madrid is one of the fears of the opposition parties before the imminent approval of the Plan Reside, since the new standard expands the number of cases in which this is possible, as confirmed by the case of Tirso de Molina. A good number of real estate in the Historic Center is currently in the hands of investment funds and can legally change residential uses to hoteliers from the entry into force of this legal change, which will be approved next summer.
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