Islazul is the largest sustainable-certified shopping centre in Spain and Klépierre’s third Madrid metro asset alongside Plenilunio and La Gavia. The 90,000-sqm regional centre opened in 2008 in the Carabanchel district, southwestern Madrid’s largest by population, with a catchment that concentrates working-class and lower-middle-income households alongside one of the city’s largest second-generation immigrant communities. Islazul carries BREEAM Excellent certification, achieved through staged sustainability upgrades completed by Klépierre between 2018 and 2023.
The architectural format defines part of the asset’s identity. Islazul is partially open-air, with retail circulation organised around landscaped plazas rather than enclosed corridors. Native vegetation, water features, and shaded walkways reduce summer cooling load by an estimated 18 to 22 percent compared to enclosed Spanish regional benchmarks, and the format has become a Klépierre case study referenced in EU sustainability reporting.
Tenant strategy reflects the price-sensitive catchment. Hipercor’s hypermarket anchors daily-necessity demand; the Inditex group’s discount brands (Lefties, Bershka, Stradivarius) hold larger footprints than the higher-margin formats; Primark and H&M cover apparel volume. The Yelmo Cines multiplex and a 30-restaurant food court of mass-market chains extend dwell. The mix excludes the premium specialty cluster that Klépierre operates at Plenilunio, a deliberate portfolio decision that calibrates each Madrid asset to its specific catchment.
For Klépierre, Islazul represents both the operator’s largest Spanish asset by GLA and its most public sustainability case study. The asset features regularly in Klépierre’s ESG reporting and in EU-level retail sustainability literature, where the partial open-air format is studied as a template for Mediterranean climate adaptation.
