The project to create a fintech hub in the Barcelona Stock Exchange building is being reactivated three years after the Tech Barcelona association announced a strategic agreement with stock market operator Six that, for the time being, has not borne fruit.
The Generalitat, owner of the building, will tender five of the nine office floors next July. Since 2020, this space had been empty because the Department of Economy – which occupied floors 5 to 9 – moved to the new administrative district of the Generalitat in the Free Trade Zone. The rest of the floors – from 0 to 4 – are managed by Six, the Swiss firm that controls the activities of the Barcelona Stock Exchange (and all Spanish stock exchanges and markets).
Government sources explain that the aim is to award the empty floors to an entity that has a project to convert the space into offices specialized in startups in the financial sector. In total, they occupy around 3,130m2 and can accommodate multiple workers. The Generalitat does not reveal this figure, nor the compensation it will demand from the entity that wins the tender.
With this announcement, the project to locate a fintech hub in the emblematic building on Passeig de Gràcia definitely takes a new form, different from the one devised three years ago by Tech Barcelona and operator Six. The two entities then sealed a pact that would allow the non-profit association to manage a portion of Six’s space. The aim was to bring together fintech (financial sector technologies), proptech (real estate) and insurtech (insurer) startups under one roof, as well as investors, venture capital funds, traditional banks, insurers and large corporations. The space would become Pier 05 and would be integrated into Tech Barcelona’s network of urban technological campuses.
With the plan paralyzed, the Generalitat joined the negotiations, which saw an opportunity to promote the project once the workers of the Department of Economy had moved to the Free Trade Zone.
Faced with the new announcement, Tech Barcelona sources point out that “if the project is articulated through a tender, the technical and economic conditions will be analyzed to decide if it suits us to present ourselves”. At the same time, the association led by Miquel Martí and chaired by Miguel Vicente continues to maintain Six as a global partner, as stated on its website.
Beyond the fintech hub, Tech Barcelona continues to work actively on the growth of its Urban Tech Campus. In February, he inaugurated Pier 07 in a building on Via Laietana. It is owned by real estate developer Núñez i Navarro and focuses on life sciences and biotechnology.
This building joins Pier 01, the headquarters of the association and of several startups in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. It is located in the Palau de Mar building and is owned by the Port of Barcelona. Pier 03, specialized in blockchain technologies, is also operational, located in the historic Porxos d’en Xifré building, near Pier 01.
On the other hand, the project to locate a new “pier” at the historic headquarters of Correos has been left behind. Despite the fact that the association conceived the idea, finally the Barcelona City Council (which secured the transfer of the space by the State) awarded the management of the space to the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, which plans to turn it into an innovation center.
