By Clara-Laeila Laudette

MADRID, Reuters – Spain’s Aena opened bidding for a plot of 28 hectares near Madrid-Barajas on Friday. The airport operator wants to create a hub for ground and air freight in order to capitalize on a growing logistics industry.

This is the first part of a larger plan to create the hub called Airport City near Aena’s biggest airport. It also hopes to make it an international hub that connects Asia with Europe and Latin America.

In order to acquire a major stake in a joint venture, potential investors must complete a qualifying phase. This requires them to contribute 125% of the initial capital expense. Aena estimates that this is 107 million Euros ($124 million).

With the area of land known by Area 1 set for auctioning in 2022’s first quarter, bidders will have until November 7 to submit their documents. A minority share of the company is expected to remain with state-owned Aena.

Aena announced that it will lease Area 1 (which will consist of 153,000 square meters of development area and 4 Hectares of land for green spaces) to its majority partner over a 75-year period.

Airport City offers investors over 2.1 million sq m of space, which can be used for cross-docking and storage, logistics warehouses, and other associated aviation services. It also houses offices, hotels, and parks.

On Thursday, the company also signed a 30 year lease with Worldwide Flight Services to utilize two logistic plots at Madrid-Barajas Airport’s Air Cargo Poligon. This area is separate from yet to be built Airport City.

WFS will pay 2. million euros annually to have 12,200 sq. metres of air freight activities, including the storage and handling merchandise, Aena stated in a statement. This is 360% more than what was expected.

($1 = 0.8648 euros)