Portugal 
Spain 
Greece 
The real estate agency of Reggio Emilia business park bankrupt
03 November, Gazzetta di Reggio
A merger between private builders and cooperatives had the merit and the opportunity to build, at the end of the Nineties, the big business park in via Pansa, a building which was the symbol of the economic boom in Reggio Emilia, a city that due to its growth needed new real estate outlets. The excessive exposure towards banks, however, decreed a few days ago the failure of Recos-Reggiana Costruzioni SRL, a company born in 1992 whose main goal was to implement the office district after the acquisition of the former Gasometro and nearby areas, between 1995 and 2002. Until 2008 many dozens of the real estate units which overlook on one side on Viale Isonzo and on the other on via Paterlini were sold. After that, however, devaluations due to the crisis followed, together with partners struggling financially (CMR Reggio above all), and rent foreclosures due to utility expenses not paid, with debts reaching 9 Million €.
In February 2015 the partners decided to liquidate the property. Amongst the main partners, there are champions of private construction such as Edilgrisendi and cooperatives in crisis like CMR, present independently as well as part of the consortium Co.Re.Co. With minor quotes, La Gonzaga SRL, Alleanza Immobiliare, Edilsei SRL are also present, as was also Edilbonacini SPA in the past. The liquidator, Alessandro Terenziani, tried to repay the debt, for then choosing the road of bankruptcy, as it was requested on 19th of October. The procedure has been assigned to Franco Stefanelli.
After the rebuilding, the real estate society Recos – which subcontracted the work mostly to the partners themselves – managed to sell only a part of the real estate units. Recos currently has 143 of the initial 631 units, most of which are garages in the basement and a dozen of apartments for rent, which however didn’t produce sufficient liquidity in order to repay banks. In addition, a building of the complex, named Fabbricato G, which is located next to the 24-hours pharmacy, is still to be completed. These properties are registered in the books for a value of 6.8 million €. The circumstance which more than any other led to the bankruptcy request for the company Recos was the injunction order from Banco BPM notified in 2016 for an amount of 6.6 million €, which was then followed by an order of payment notified in February 2017 and, above all, the foreclosure.
The serious real estate crisis that affected the territory of Reggio Emilia hit then also Recos, which after 2010 couldn’t finalise important transactions like it did until 2009. A failure that is one of the consequences of the real estate recession in the city, that made cooperatives collapse and impacted private companies as well.
The heavy financial exposure (outstanding debt with BPM for 6.5 million €, with Bper for 470k € and with CariParma for 533k €) had an impact on the lack of liquidity. In 2011 the real estate agency registered its biggest loss, for an amount of 6.5 million €, an unmistakable sign of the failure now landed in court.
Source: Gazzetta di Reggio
Translator: Cristina Ambrosi