Born merchants are stepping on the accelerator to set up the first apeu in Barcelona, ??which would be the Catalan version of the Anglo-Saxon bids, a public-private collaboration formula where businesses in an area pay more to the administrations in exchange for participating. in the management of their services.
“Our association has been working on this idea for years, since 2017 – says Juan Carlos Arriaga, from the Born Comerç association –, and the City Council is paving the way, it is finally working on the regulations that will finally make apeus possible in Barcelona. We have been in regular contact with the City Council for months. We hope that at the end of this year or at the beginning of next year we will have the necessary regulations. We work with those rhythms. As soon as the regulations are ready, we will only need about three months to set up our apeu.”
Bid stands for Business Improvement District. Here the bids were renamed apeus, as Àrees de Promoció Econòmica Urbana. The idea was always simple. All economic activities in a place, whether clothing stores, restaurants with terraces or a dentist, pay extra to the administration, mainly depending on their size, in order to finance collective development strategies.
The bid is established after a vote in which the majority of businesses in the area in question support the initiative. Once approved, everyone pays, obligatorily, by law, regardless of whether they voted against it or not. Not like Christmas lights, which are paid for by those who want.
“The first thing we want to set up is a quick office to help chefs, artisans, designers and other unique projects settle in the Born that contribute to liven up the area and revalue it – they detail in the Born Comerç association –, an office that seeks investors, selects quality initiatives and help them, for example, to find a location and speed up the corresponding bureaucratic procedures, always according to a global strategy in order not to succumb to mass tourism and globalization. We want to continue being a reference in the metropolitan area. The problem with traditional merchant associations is that their initiatives basically depend on voluntarism, and so maybe you can set up a fair or distribute bags with the same logo. But to compete on equal terms with shopping centers, big brands and franchises you need a permanent professional structure. And that is what we will achieve with the apeu.”
The benchmark for Born merchants is the Meatpacking District of New York. A century or so ago this Manhattan neighborhood was home to dozens of slaughterhouses and packaging plants. Meatpacking went into decline in the 60s, and in the 80s it was already better known for drug trafficking and the practice of prostitution than for its industrial activity. Today, however, its shops, restaurants and nightclubs make the Meatpacking District one of the most fashionable corners of New York.
The establishment of the IDB was fundamental in consolidating this new stage. In reality it is a story very similar to that of El Born. And obviously the rents in the area no longer have anything to do with those of past times. These transformations also entail a few traumas.
The idea of ??the apeus was already being considered in Barcelona in the first term of mayor Ada Colau. And then a few candidates emerged to ride the first. But in that coalition government, the distrust of the common people towards this initiative collided with the enthusiasm of the socialists. Some understood that these formulas give rise to the privatization of public space and the worsening of inequalities between neighborhoods, and others that in this way co-management is encouraged that allows the smallest ones to compete with the largest ones. that addresses the particularities of each area. And the truth is that these differences did not contribute to overcoming the legal obstacles that at that time slowed down the development of the apeus. Today, however, the scenario is very different.
The councilor for commerce, the socialist Raquel Gil, assures that the development and implementation of the apeus is one of the objectives of the government of Mayor Jaume Collboni for the current mandate. “We have never stopped working on this issue,” the councilor adds. But we finally have the appropriate legislative framework to move them forward. At the moment we are working on the regulations that will develop the new regulations of the Generalitat. Broadly speaking, basically, what we have to do is determine who has to vote whether or not they want to set up an apeu in a certain area. Here we must also include the owners of unused premises and the owners of economic activities that are not at street level. In addition, we must specify how the corresponding financial contributions are made later. And the truth is that the Generalitat still has to clarify a few doubts for us.”
Councilor Gil does not want to get her fingers caught and says that the new regulation that will ultimately give the starting signal to the Born merchants will be ready at the beginning of next year. “It will have to be approved in the plenary session of the City Council, and this will force us to have sufficient political support.”
“What has been said – the Born merchants reiterate – as soon as the City Council gives the green light we will vote. We already have about 160 associated businesses, and soon we will also have the paradistas of the Santa Caterina market. In addition, we are trying to include several cultural institutions in the area in the project.”