Sant Adrià de Besòs has activated the municipal machinery to face the transformation of the coastline, assuming the synergy that the new neighborhood of the three chimneys will generate. To this end, the mayor, Filo Cañete, has hired as councilor an expert urban planner and teacher, a disciple of Norman Foster, who has not hesitated to take on the challenge of directing the metamorphosis of the coastal front, José Gras.
The urban development is set by the development of the urban master plan of the three chimneys, “a strategic intervention,” advances Gras, which apart from the economic attraction that the Audiovisual Cluster will produce in the old thermal power plant, will add a neighborhood of 1,783 apartments, of which 40% will be protected housing, half for rent.
The expansive wave of the project implies the generation of a large continuous urban park. Eleven hectares of public spaces and green areas will be created along 12 km. that will connect with the Besòs river park. “The entire coastline will be an urban promenade,” the councilor advances.
The future transformation is complemented by that promoted by Badalona with the neighborhood of La Mora and the port neighborhood of Gorg. In this sector, an industry has also germinated to which Gras attaches great strategic importance, the 2África submarine cable managed by the Barcelona Cable Landing Station and which will promote a new building to house a data processing center, with which “we aim to promote an industry 4.0 model with added value jobs. In this area, adds Gras, “we should be urbanizing the streets at the beginning of 2027.”
Another of the key pieces of the transformation of the coastline is the implementation of the School of Engineering of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, next to which new research centers are planned to be installed.
José Gras points out that with the planned urban expansion, “Sant Adrià will be at the center of the triangle of innovation” that originates between the Besòs campus, the three fireplaces and the neighborhoods of Verneda and Montsolís. “A new centrality that already defines the Metropolitan PDU.
In these neighborhoods bordering Barcelona, ??the Sant Adrià City Council proposes a use plan to take advantage of the effect that the new Sagrera railway station will have on the territory, “which will be the great gateway to the metropolis of Barcelona, ??the main door from France”, an opportunity that has not gone unnoticed by hotel investors.
The Tembo hotel has just opened, with 304 rooms. In summer, the Port Fòrum will open, with 500 places and a small establishment in the center of the municipality with 22 accommodations. “Six months ago we only had 60 hotel beds,” highlights Gras, and at the end of the mandate there will be more than 800.
The Tembo hotel, according to the councilor, represents the beginning of the transformation of the Mina neighborhood, in which everyone longs for the demolition of the Venus building, “but we must avoid gentrification and the expulsion of neighbors with less purchasing power” causing crime to disappear, “but not the people of the Mine,” says Gras. In the neighborhood, the Institut Català del Sòl is scheduled to build 66 public apartments on the vacant land next to the library.
The Trajana neighborhood will also experience a regeneration of space. Public buildings of a residential nature will be built around Ferrocarril Avenue that will coexist with the economic activity that will be refined towards innovation industries. In this neighborhood, the development of several plots for the construction of new housing is planned.
In the Catalana neighborhood there are plots in the lower area of ??Cristóbal de Moura street where the City Council has a large area of ??1.8 hectares for equipment. On Antonio Machado Street, the Imsol del Àrea Metropolitana will build 114 protected rental apartments and an investor will build an aparthotel with 184 rooms and a new commercial area.
The new planning will generate major works to pacify main arteries in Sant Adrià, such as Avenida de la Platja, where there is a commitment to increasing pedestrian spaces, and the regeneration of the environment, such as on the Tibidabo road.
