The doors of the emblematic and superb building at Plaza de Canalejas 1 that was occupied by the Banco Hispano Americano will reopen this Friday, June 3, but not to give way to savers and debtors, but rather to customers and visitors to the new luxury stores that open there as part of the Canalejas Galleries.
This ambitious shopping and leisure center began its first phase a year and a half ago, with the opening of the Four Seasons hotel and the Hermès and Cartier shops at street level, after seven years of rehabilitation work on the framework of old buildings that had in that mythical corner of the capital, the one that joins Alcalá and Seville, a stone’s throw from Puerta del Sol.
A few months later its locomotive arrived, which aims to attract a more varied public, the Food Hall with 13 restaurants and a kind of more informal food and drink stalls or on the go, urban market type.
Now comes the turn of the long-awaited luxury stores. This Friday, June 3, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (on Sundays, from 12 p.m.), seven of the most select fashion brands in the world open their exquisite premises in the complex that has become an emblem of the explosion of luxury, investments, tourism and openings that Madrid lives.
Rolex, Valentino, Aquazurra (with its first store in the Spanish capital), Zegna, Omega and Saint Laurent will be at Galerias Canalejas in this first phase. Later Dior, Louis Vuitton, Giorgio Armani, Jimmy Choo and some more will be added, in a second phase still without a confirmed date but already underway.
The complex also offers exclusive services for its select visitors: a VIP room, with a place for meetings and waiting, and advice service for stylists and ‘personal shopper’, and a room for customer service.
The decoration of the new luxury shopping center in Madrid is key, since for this space architectural elements have been recovered that symbolize the history of Plaza Canalejas, occupied by successive large banks, such as its art deco geometric window (which was in the 1940s in the Banco Zaragozano and now occupies the center of the hall), its bars and what will be the symbol -and the most photographed object on networks- of the new space: the safes. In total, there are five recovered. Three of them on the top floor of the shops, one giving way to the connection between the Four Seasons hotel and this new area and the fifth, the largest and heaviest -19 tons, which required an extra beam to support it- alone as a luxury showcase, never better said (for the inauguration, it houses a Birkin bag, from Hermès).
Another of the elements that characterize it are its hanging lamps, made by hand by Spanish craftsmen especially for this complex.
In the marbled central area of this shopping center, decorated for this opening with thousands of red carnations and structured by a golden staircase that gives way and cohesion with the Food Hall in the basement, there is a beauty area, called ‘Beauty Gallery by Isolee’ , also with a selection of exclusive brands (Valmont, Natura Bissé, Penhaligon’s and Westman Atelier, among others).
The Four Seasons also houses a Sisley spa and, on the top floor, the Dani Brasserie by Marbella chef Dani García.
The complex will give its last stitch with the opening of 22 luxury private homes and a parking lot. Galerias Canalejas belongs to the OHLA group, which took over seven historic buildings to undertake this project, directed by the Lamela architecture studio.
