Whether you're coming in to land at Barajas Airport, driving into Madrid from the suburbs, or even hiking up the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains, you can't fail to spot them. Madrid's skyline has been redefined by the Cuatro Torres Business Area (CTBA): four new skyscrapers that rise above everything else in the Spanish capital.

But that's just the beginning for this northern area of Madrid, with new projects in the offing that would eventually see the area transformed into a thriving business and residential district of the ever-expanding city, which is still engaged in a game of catch-up with Barcelona that first kicked off with the modernisation of the Catalan city in time for the 1992 Olympics.

"In a couple of years, I'm convinced that this complex will have eaten up Madrid," says Almudena Molinero, head of public relations at the Eurostars Madrid Tower Hotel, which is housed in the 236m Torre Sacyr Vallehermoso. "It will be the centre of Madrid, but in the way that the City is for London."

This would be quite a result for a plot of land that was once Real Madrid's training ground, originally purchased by the football club back in 1960 for just for 11,000,970 pesetas — around €66,000. Fast forward to 2001, and club president Florentino Pérez pulled off a deal to reclassify the land for development, and sell it off for €501m, a sum that helped him bring a few minor figures to his team such as Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo and Beckham… whoever they may be.

Of course, unleashing thousands of new square metres of office space onto the city during the worst recession in Spain's living memory is not an easy task, and the occupation rates in the towers reflect that. The 40% of the Sacyr tower not already taken up by the five-star hotel is as yet unoccupied. But this hasn't stopped the Madrileños from queuing up to enjoy the hotel's gastronomic hit, Volvoreta, remarkable not least for its sky-top view. Meanwhile, the entire Torre de Cristal, which belongs to insurance firm Mutua Madrileña, lies empty.

That said, the Torre Caja Madrid — formerly known as the Torre Repsol, until a change of chairman at the oil giant saw them offload the unfinished building for €815m — is poised to become home for the Caja Madrid savings bank, while the Torre Espacio already boasts a 95% occupancy rate, with some important tenants including the British, Canadian, Dutch and Australian embassies.

But the CTBA, which right now is surrounded by little more than a hospital and some low-rise flats, will really take off once Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón's new conference centre, the Centro Internacional de Convenciones, is completed. The new building, which has been designed to look like a setting sun, will boast 15,000m2 of usable space and is set to become one of the biggest such venues of its kind in Europe. The people-traffic expected will boost the coffers of the Eurostars hotel, as well as providing plenty of custom for the restaurants and bars that will start to spring up soon. There are also plans to create an enormous urban park to entice leisure visitors.

Another pet project of the mayor, who is insatiable in his desire to get the city Olympic-ready for his 2016 bid, is the so-called Operation Chamartín. The redevelopment plan will see the nearby Chamartín train station taken underground, freeing up 312ha of prime real estate to make way for housing developments, offices, and more skyscrapers.

It looks like Madrid's redevelopment projects will be dominating more than just the skyline in years to come.