The enigmatic El Corte Inglés building in Méndez Álvaro now has its future mapped out. In the coming years, its glass and granite walls will give way to cranes, a large neighborhood green space, an underground mobility hub for Bicimad, and an office tower of up to 27 stories that will change the skyline of southern Madrid.
The City Council’s Governing Board has approved the urban planning agreement launching the Nuevo Sur-Méndez Álvaro project, the initiative that will completely transform the 11,811-square-meter site where the historic Corte Inglés once stood, opened in 1992 and closed in 2024 following a ruling that challenged its permit. The agreement marks a major shift in the distribution of ownership: 72% of the land will pass into municipal hands, designated for public facilities and green space, while the remaining 28% will remain in private hands for commercial use, primarily offices.
The demolition of the building is the responsibility of the developer and already has a timeline: the agreement stipulates that the old shopping center must be completely demolished within a minimum of 18 months and a maximum of 24 months from final approval, thus paving the way for cranes to take center stage in the Méndez Álvaro landscape over the next two years.
A large park and neighborhood facilities at ground level
The largest portion of the plot, located toward the southwest and already owned by the city, will be designated for dual use. On one hand, the creation of a large neighborhood green space; on the other, the construction of a public facility yet to be defined, which will be finalized in consultation with the Arganzuela District Council and based on the neighborhood’s needs. The idea, as explained by Deputy Mayor Inma Sanz, is for the park to be “the central element” around which the public building and the future office tower will be organized, creating new pedestrian connections and gathering spaces in an area previously dominated by traffic and enclosed commercial use.
This large park is conceived as a neighborhood green space in a very dense urban hub, nestled between the M-30, the Méndez Álvaro station, and large existing office developments. With this project, the City Council aims to increase public amenities in Arganzuela and balance the concentration of commercial and service uses that have been building up in the area in recent years.
Underground: municipal crane, parking lots, and Bicimad “headquarters”
While the change will be visible above ground in the form of a park and new architecture, the true “technical heart” of the project will be underground. The former underground parking garage of the Corte Inglés, a massive space of some 28,000 square meters, will be converted into a Mobility Center managed by the Municipal Transportation Company ( EMT).
The site will house: a new Bicimad operations and maintenance hub, with the capacity to manage up to 9,000 public bicycles, which will strengthen the expansion and control of the electric bike system throughout the city; a municipal impound lot with 1,200 temporary storage spaces for towed vehicles, which will replace and reorganize part of the current facilities scattered throughout Madrid; a 320-space public time-limited parking lot, designed to serve the area around the Méndez Álvaro station and the new office and public facilities, and an electric mobility hub, designed for professional fleets and the charging of zero-emission vehicles.
With this initiative, the City Council aims to turn Méndez Álvaro into a key hub for sustainable mobility, leveraging its strategic location as a transit interchange for trains, buses, and the Metro, and now adding the centralized management of Bicimad and part of the municipal tow truck service.
The Great Tower: A New Landmark on the Southern Skyline
The second plot, smaller in size (3,311 square meters) and privately owned, will house an office tower of up to 27 stories. The plan sets a maximum buildable area of 51,776 square meters for this zone, which will be largely concentrated in this commercial skyscraper, set to become one of the landmarks of southern Madrid’s new skyline alongside other recent developments in Méndez Álvaro.
The city’s goal is for this tower to serve as a magnet for economic activity and employment, reinforcing Méndez Álvaro’s role as an office district and headquarters for major companies. The project is part of a broader strategy to consolidate the southern axis of the M-30 as a new business center, alongside developments in Abroñigal, the Delicias area, and the residential projects continuing to emerge around the station.