The Lleida consultancy Smart Habent presents this Thursday in detail a project to install a shopping center in Pla de l’Estació de Lleida. The initiative will be called Rambla Estació and it was born as a leisure, urban and commercial center, which will occupy more than 60,000 square meters and will house some 140 commercial premises.
The consultancy defends that the initiative, which has a private budget of 200 million euros, will make it possible to make the Pla de l’Estació project viable, which was proposed two decades ago. The representative of the firm, Jordi GarcÃa, explains that “the project goes beyond the creation of a shopping center”, since it implies the covering of the train tracks and the union of Pardinyes with the center of Lleida.
The surface of 60,000 square meters will be distributed in 47,000 square meters for commerce, 16,000 for leisure and 6,000 to house catering establishments. The consultant estimates that a thousand direct and indirect workplaces will be created.
The project has been designed by the architect Octavi Mestre and will involve covering the train tracks from the Catalan Parliament to Avenida del Segre and Avenida de Tortosa. This will make it possible to once again connect the center with the city with the neighborhoods of Pardinyes and Balà fia. In addition, it contemplates the use of all the existing infrastructure and includes a green cover and a promenade of almost one kilometer that will also act as a viewpoint.
Regarding financing, the consultancy defends that it will be carried out with private investment and that, therefore, it will not entail any expense for the City Council or for Adif, the owner of all the railway infrastructure. The approximate budget for the project is 200 million euros and the promoter has the Societat de Centers Comercials d’Espanya (SCCE) as a strategic partner and the support of the Slow Shop Lleida association and other business entities in the city. In this way, the shopping center plans to have a second-hand clothing store from the Troballes de CÃ rites Lleida social entity.
The presentation of the project coincides with the political debate on what the commercial model of the city should be, which once again highlights the discrepancies between the different parties that aspire to the mayoralty.
The current ERC and Junts government team defends the Pla de l’Estació, as well as its former partners from the Comú de Lleida. In fact, this plan is the one that creates the most consensus in the City Council, where the plenary session last February 2023 approved the urban modification to advance with the project with the favorable votes of all the parties except the PSC and the three councilors. not affiliated, who abstained.
