With the aim of strengthening and making commerce in the city center attractive and avoiding the closure of more stores, Girona has started the process to create its first Urban Economic Promotion Area (APEU) that could become a reality in 2025.
A tool that would bring together a total of 208 premises at street level between Plaza Catalunya and Plaza Independencia and surrounding streets such as Santa Clara, Pont de Pedra, Rambla and Argenteria.
68% of premises included in this space are commercial establishments, 25% are restaurants and the remaining 7% are services. In 2022, the area had about forty empty premises, an effect that the promoters of this APEU, one of the most advanced of the 43 that have begun to be processed in Catalonia, want to reverse with this economic promotion tool.
“Turning it into a commercial attraction hub will be a great incentive for the owners of those empty premises and would favor their rental,” predicts the president of Girona Center Eix Comercial, Mercè Ramírez de Cartagena, who assures that if the results are optimal the model will be could extend to other areas of the city.
The objective is to set a unified course in commercial promotion and communication and turn the center into a “preferred destination” for shopping, not only for the city’s residents but also for the rest of the province and among foreigners.
The vice-president of the Girona Hospitality Association, Xavier Manresa, trusts that the streets covered by this APEU “are like a kind of Roca Village”.
A space that has deterrent parking, picnic areas, garden areas, informants, reinforced security, spaces to charge mobile phones and actions that stimulate shopping, such as concerts or other activities, beyond Christmas.
In total, more than one million euros will be allocated to this initiative, which will be valid for five years and extendable. An amount that will be assumed by the merchants and restaurateurs themselves, who will pay an “affordable fee” based on the square meters of commercial surface. 95% of the premises are less than 300 square meters.
For this APEU to prosper, more than 50% of the registered owners or tenants of premises must vote for it and it must be approved by an absolute majority. Subsequently, it must go through the municipal plenary session, something that is not expected to happen until 2025.
According to the Generealitat, there are 43 APEU projects underway in Catalonia, spread across 33 cities. 44%, as in the case of Girona, have been promoted by commercial associations and 56% by City Councils.
The one in Girona, along with those in Berga, La Jonquera (El Portús) and Figueres, are the ones that are in a more advanced phase. APEUs have their origin in the Anglo-Saxon model of Business Improvement Districts (BIDS), public-private cooperation organizations, which aim to energize and improve urban shopping centers.
