Is Barcelona's 22@ technology district in crisis?

Three years of construction boom have left Barcelona’s 22@ technology district with 160,000 m2 of empty offices, and another 157,000 m2 that are already rented off plan, although they are in buildings still under construction, which will be finished before 2025. The high rate of unemployment has led some neighborhood groups to point out that 22@ is “a model of failure”, a project that they describe as “exhausted” and “obsolete” and that they ask that it be reviewed so that the available land in the area is used to build housing.

“The 22@ is the economic engine of Barcelona. It is a project that Madrid, Malaga, Valencia and cities in other countries such as Dublin, Stockholm and Buenos Aires are introducing,” says Enric Urreta, president of the 22@Network association, which brings together a good part of the companies established in the area. in addition to the 9 universities and the 2 technology centers (Eurecat and Leitat) that have their offices on the city’s coastline. “There is no dichotomy between offices and homes: in the area we have land planned to build 6,000 social homes, half of all those Barcelona now has. We also believe that the city needs more housing and we already have the land: what is needed is for it to be built,” he adds.

“22@ is an international brand, which no longer corresponds to the limits of the urban district,” says Javier Bernades, director of the office area of ??the consulting firm Cushman.

The offices available for rent, finished or still under construction, represent almost 40% in the urban district (which has only 700,000 m2 of offices), and 21% of the stock in the coastal area that is marketed as 22@. According to Urreta, this unemployment rate “occupies us, but it does not worry us: we have been at similar levels at other times when, like now, a moment of economic weakness has coincided with the release of many buildings to the market.”

Thus, it happened, according to data from the consulting firm Savills, after the burst of the “dotcom” bubble at the beginning of the century and then after the financial crisis of 2008, and these buildings were filled to the point that in 2019 companies had to rent on plans buildings that had not even begun work. “There is a mismatch between supply and demand: from the time a developer decides to build a building until it is finished, 3 years pass, one of them processing the licenses,” Bernades laments. And sometimes when the building is finished the economic circumstances have changed. And that’s how we are now.”

According to Urreta, 22@ has been slowed down by the weakness of the cyclical economy, but also by its own specialization as a technological district: the rise of teleworking that the pandemic has brought affects this sector more and also the rise in interest rates. interest, which has forced many money-losing technology companies to lay off workers around the world. “In the district’s companies, teleworking is being maintained more: on average, only 2.8 days are worked in person. And this has led many companies, even profitable ones, to reduce their office space. Now, however, the big American technology companies are returning to in-person, and in a few months we will also see it here,” he adds.

Bernades points out that beyond the return to presence, the key is the city’s ability to attract new companies and points out that, according to a study by Moody’s Analytics, the city will create 17,200 office jobs between 2023 and 2025, being the only city which is not a state capital that is among the top ten in Europe. “A few years ago we lost opportunities because there was no space: the current situation is an opportunity.”

Urreta adds that the association, together with the Generalitat and the City Council, are working to attract new companies. Currently, she explains, the economic promotion offices have 500 projects from international companies seeking to establish themselves in Catalonia and about 300 are studying doing so in 22 @. However, “economic uncertainty slows down many business decisions, and all these projects now take a long time to come to fruition,” Bernades acknowledges.

All in all, in the last eighteen months more than 425,000 m2 of offices have been rented in Barcelona, ??according to data from the consulting firm JLL, and some of the largest operations have been signed in 22@, such as the new TravelPerk offices ( 8,475 m2) or those of Porsche’s digital division, one of the most recent, with 2,476 m2. “We believe it will happen like other times. Barcelona has a great capacity to attract talent, so in a few years we will have absorbed all the stock,” says Bernades.