Derelict Restaurant to Office, Gym & Studio in Valencia. Licences, Nosey Neighbours + a Police Visit

At the end of 2024 we bought an old restaurant in La Pobla near Valencia. The plan was straightforward enough: strip it back, reconfigure the space, and create a proper base for Valencia Property - a modern office, a gym, and a recording studio for the podcast and video work we'd been producing for years out of less-than-ideal spaces and a one bedroom apartment upfront to allow affordable and accessible housing for people struggling with rising rents. It did not all go smoothly. This video is the full story. We start with the building as we found it , a tired, dated commercial space that had seen better decades, and then take you through every stage of the conversion. The early decisions, the layout planning, the moment we realised the permit we required wasn't going to come through it, and what happened when we had to change course mid-project. If you're planning any kind of commercial conversion in Spain, the paperwork will surprise you. It surprised us, and we've been operating here since 1999 in the residential space and the commercial space is a whole new area. We decided to try before we offered it to anyone. We would take the hits. There were neighbour complaints. There were delays. At one point the police showed up and work stopped completely. We got there in the end. The finished space is exactly what we wanted after the mid project pivot; a clean, functional office where we can get everyone together in a single place and I actually enjoy working, a proper gym (At least enough for what I need) and a studio set up for the content side of the business. We have space for the snooker table too but that's not yet been purchased. The journey was a good reminder that renovation and project planning in Spain runs on its own timeline and its own rules, especially in the commercial space. We're sharing all of it , the good decisions and the bad ones, the costs, the hold-ups. Not because we want to put people off, but because if you're thinking about buying and converting a commercial property in Valencia, you'll be better prepared by having watched this first. Valencia Property has been helping buyers navigate the Spanish property market since 1999. We know what we're talking about when it comes to finding and buying the right property. This project taught us a few things we didn't already know about what comes after in the commercial space. Has it put us off? Not really. We always like a challenge and every day is a school day.