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Colau Halts Investments in Barcelona’s 22@ District

10 December 2018 – Catalunya Press

Colau’s municipal government has halted several investments in the 22@ district of Barcelona, which affects companies such as Acciona, Värde Partners and Metrovacesa.

According to sources in the real estate sector, several multinationals will also end up missing out, including the French company Bouygues, the family business Espais and private funds, such as Semillas Fito.

The histories of each firm are very varied. Shaftesbury purchased an abandoned factory in 2017, where it wants to build an office building spanning 16,000 m2, a turnkey project where the multinational technology firm Cisco is going to open a research centre for intelligent cities. The land purchase involved an investment of around €10 million, according to El Confidencial.

The US firm Värde spent €50 million in total during 2017 buying land in the area affected by the revised plans of Colau, who now wants to modify the urban planning arrangements, which will mean the suspension of all projects. It was one of the largest land operations of last year in Barcelona, involving 52,000 m2 of buildable office space. At stake, a €70 million investment, which is now under threat.

Acciona has been in the area since 2001 and is the owner of an entire block between Calles Perú, Bolivia, Fluvia and Selva de Mar, which spans a surface area of 53,380 m2 and where it wants to build 33,200 m2 of office space.

Sources in the real estate sector indicate that the suspension of all of these projects, involving approximately 2 million m2 of office space, is only going to serve to put more pressure on prices in the consolidated 22@ area, which has now been completed south of La Diagonal, where Torre Glòries and the other offices are now occupied. In other words, prices will rise.

Original story: Catalunya Press

Translation: Carmel Drake