Those who have the most money in Spain live in the postal code 28109. This is the code of La Moraleja – it belongs to the Madrid municipality of Alcobendas – and it is, according to statistics from the Tax Agency , the place with the highest gross income in terms of personal income tax, with an average income that exceeds 190,000 euros per person. year. He also has another record. With its adjacent urbanizations, it concentrates 29 elite private schools: bilingual nursery schools, the European Lycée, the Scandinavian School, Kings College and the French Lycée, among others.
The latest to arrive is Brewster Academy, an American school more than 200 years old, according to its advertising brochures, which has landed in Spain through a subsidiary, Brewster Academy Spain. His advisors are, among others, the brothers Elías and Ricardo Carreño. The first of them was a senior member of the People’s Party.
La Moraleja is the second headquarters of this school in Spain. The first opened its doors in 2023 in the Madrid district of Chamberí thanks to the fact that the Community of Madrid of Isabel Díaz Ayuso and the City Hall, governed by José Luis Martínez-Almeida, allowed its installation in a protected residence considered as a asset of Cultural interest. Later, it was learned that it was open without a permit, even though it already accommodated hundreds of students. Madrid City Hall commuted the closure to a fine of 100,000 euros, which the property has appealed and the final amount of which is not yet known.
In its business expansion plan – its prices vary from 1,020 to more than 2,207 euros per month depending on the school level – Brewster plans to open the next course in the exclusive urbanization of La Moraleja, after obtaining the license municipal in May of this year. year, as company sources confirm to elDiario.es.
“Having so many schools means saturation of entrances and exits from La Moraleja. In the specific case of Brewster, it is located on a main artery. We are currently preparing a traffic study that will refute the unrealistic and false scenario indicated by the construction company Brewster and accepted by the Alcobendas City Hall,” explains Carmen del Pino, spokesperson for the Association of Owners of La Moraleja, which brings together 250 inhabitants of the municipality of Alcobendas. objective of recovering decision-making power in urbanization, in the hands of “the schools and the golf club”.
The land occupied by the new school is in the heart of the neighborhood, in the Slave Church complex, after a religious congregation sold the land two years ago. After a legal battle during which the nuns tried to demolish their own church and their cloister to increase the constructability and therefore the price of the real estate transaction, the Alcobendas Town Hall (then in the hands of Ciudadanos) pleaded and ended up protecting themselves. the religious worship building, which continues to celebrate mass.
The land extends over 20,000 square meters, according to register notes, where earth moving, demolition and work are being carried out to build an educational complex from kindergarten to high school which will gradually accommodate up to 900 students .
To settle there, Brewster said he was going to cut down 42 trees and 30 oaks were transplanted, figures slightly higher than the plan initially presented to the Alcobendas City Hall, to which elDiario.es had access. “The motivation is to generate the parking spaces required by municipal regulations and to locate the sports fields in the center,” specify school sources.
As outlined in their own mobility plan, they will build 84 parking spaces and trails where live oaks and other species previously stood. In exchange, and according to the plan presented to the municipality, they must replant 1,435 trees. Brewster sources explain that “40 of them are going to be planted in the west area of campus.” For the rest, “we will make a payment to the municipal nursery and they will decide how, when and where they will be planted, seeking the benefit of the community”.
La Moraleja is precisely an environment of great environmental value, a forest of holm oaks protected by law where 2,000 houses and chalets have been built. Cutting down trees without authorization leads to fines, such as that imposed on the company of footballer Sergio Ramos: 250,000 euros for the destruction of 50 to 90 species.
“On the part of the association, we are vigilant and have filed two complaints in this regard, alerting the Town Hall of possible non-compliance and of the monitoring and authorization responsibilities that public agents will have in their case, including including criminal charges,” explains the district spokesperson. , who confirms having sent a letter to the public prosecutor’s office and Seprona to request monitoring of the project, as well as to denounce the death of 140 holm oaks in the municipality after the failure of the replanting due to the construction of a residence for the elderly , a letter to which this media had access.
Brewster Academy ensures that everything was done in compliance with the law and procedures: “Each of the trees concerned is cataloged, replanted and geopositioned in accordance with the environmental impact study carried out at the start of the project. » Concerning the felling, they emphasize that the trees were “in very poor condition mainly due to the passage of storm Filomena”.
Who is behind Brewster, which has also just opened a headquarters in Murcia, and who is investing in this educational adventure? For its commercial development in Spain, Brewster Academy Spain SL was created, which counts among its directors and founders the brothers Elías and Ricardo Carreño. The first of them was general director of the defunct Madrid Development Agency and marketing director of Promomadrid in the governments of Esperanza Aguirre and Alberto Ruiz Gallardón.
According to its latest accounts presented, in 2023 it is leased to Chamberí and La Moraleja, whose land was purchased by Construcciones Ganaderas SL for an amount that has not been disclosed but which could be around 6 million euros. The company’s economic situation is not very buoyant: it was created in 2020 and has accumulated losses of 1.9 million, with operating expenses that double revenues.
In fact, it is currently supported by the money that the partners transferred to it at the beginning and during a subsequent capital increase, which amounts to 4.5 million. According to company sources, “Brewster’s business plan is solid. We are not looking for immediate profitability, but rather the construction of a long-term educational project. The same official sources, to which Ricardo Carreño referred after being contacted through this means, admit to having received 400,000 euros for the registration plates at the closing of these accounts, in June 2023, the first year of its entry into activity in Spain, from a long way away. of their annual expenses.
The Alcobendas City Council, governed by the PP since 2023, did not respond to any of elDiario.es’ questions nor to its telephone and written requests regarding the details of the permit, constructability and logging in the area. municipality.
