22@ is missing a few cherries to finish filling it with joy. Take a race at nightfall through Barcelona’s technology district, when the forgotten flexes of the offices illuminate the streets through the glass and the bakery where people buy snacks lower the blinds, and you will have the sensation of crossing a dystopian drift where the shadows are always disturbing, until suddenly the Poblenou bursts in and again you see people, shops still open, terraces…
“The 22@ is an unfinished success story,” says Jaime Hugas, from the investment company Conren Tramway. The City Council was right in promoting the regeneration of a neighborhood stuck in a long process of industrial decay. Now we need to delve deeper into the mix of uses. But it is not possible because the suspension of licenses that aims to improve coexistence is still in force. We have promoted six office buildings in 22@ and enabled their ground floors for commercial use because we believe that the availability of services adds value to neighbors and users. When managers look for offices they always ask about the service offering. The truth is that here it is very limited for those who go out to eat or have a coffee. “Restrictions often drive them to enable value propositions for their employees that include services in their own premises.” Other managers, on the other hand, look for other possibilities, they look for other areas.
Two employees eat in a park near their workplace
“Look,” adds Hugas, “the City of London in the 90s was the same, and when night fell it was soulless. Later, office buildings were transformed into residential buildings and businesses were opened. It filled with life and the rest is history. We are optimistic because we hear that the City Council has worked a lot on this issue and that it will soon be resolved. Stay with the idea that the future of Barcelona is in the 22@”. And the truth is that Barcelona has always opted for a mix of land uses. It’s part of your DNA. But mixes are always complex.
“The City of London in the 90s was barren as night fell, until shops opened”
In order to protect local rest and local commerce and stop monocultures, the government of Mayor Jaume Collboni issued a one-year suspension of music, restaurant and food business licenses in a large part of the Sant Martí district in December 2023. duration. The objective is to update the district’s use plan. The plan that is still in force already established that within three years from the entry into force of its modification in September 2016, the City Council would assess the need to review it. In addition, the modification of the General Metropolitan Plan aimed at strengthening a more inclusive and sustainable 22@ also determined that in four months from its entry into force in June 2022, work would begin to adjust the determinations of the Sant Martí use plan. Business owners understand that the time has come to refine these restrictions.
A terrace located in the technological district of Barcelona
“Right now this is a fundamental issue when it comes to attracting talent,” says Javier Bernardes, from the real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield. The world is changing and 22@ has to change with the world to continue writing a success story. The 22@ continues to generate great interest far beyond Barcelona, but the competition is very tough. “It needs a vibrant urban environment.” You walk through 22@ and find ping pong tables in front of the doors of the buildings, even some sports courts, and inside you even find canteens, gyms, terraces, foosball tables, pool tables… “But having attractive offices is not enough –continues Bernardes–. Companies are rethinking their workplaces since the pandemic is behind us. But talent is not forced, it is persuaded. You have to offer him a whole way of life.”
Municipal sources indicate that Mayor Collboni’s executive made a commitment to social housing and urban greenery. In addition, it also plans to approve the new use plan for the area in a few months. “In this process – sources underline – the City Council is studying different options aimed at diversifying economic activity and aligning it with the daily life of the neighborhood.”
“You don’t force talent, you have to persuade them, otherwise they go somewhere else”
Susana Prados, the new president of the business platform 22@ Network Barcelona, which already has more than 250 members, explains that “we are currently preparing a document with the new needs of 22@ to deliver to the City Council. It seems to us that the municipal government has a good disposition. We talk about bars and restaurants, and also about homes and daycares. All of this contributes to strengthening the competitiveness of 22@. We still have plenty of space available. We are committed to the fifteen-minute city and the mix of land uses. We also understand that social balance is very important to ensure sustainable development of the city’s technology district. In fact, we are working on a plan for next year to open 22@ to the rest of Sant Martí, to offer some of our spaces to residents, so that they can also host cultural activities, meetings of the different associations… .”
The new challenges of the technological district
Xavier Güell, director of the real estate consultancy CBRE in Barcelona, says that 22@ went through difficult times in 2022 and 2023, “due to the high number of building deliveries in a short time and a global contraction in demand.” But this year, Güell continues, “the trend changed: hiring increased and unemployment stabilized. “It was a matter of time.” The new challenges of the technological district are more urbanistic, adds the analyst. Because 22@ accumulates 28% of the offices in the entire city, but only 6% of its population. Here we have about 15 m2 of offices for each inhabitant, and in the rest of Barcelona only two. “At CBRE we consider it essential to provide the area with more homes, shops and restaurants. But these uses can only be harmoniously integrated through a specific modification of the General Metropolitan Plan. If we do not act, this imbalance, which is already the highest in the city, will increase even more in the coming years.” It is, Güell concludes, another step in this success story, “the transformation of an industrial area to adapt to the new needs of the city. 25% of the buildings in Barcelona are Grade A, and 70% of them are in 22@”.
Source: www.lavanguardia.com
