Barcelona City Council still does not know what to do with 18 commercial premises it bought in 2021 in order to facilitate the opening of local businesses. The then deputy mayors Jordi Martí and Jaume Collboni announced that the socio-communal government had spent around 17 and a half million euros on the acquisition of 35 flats throughout the city, which would very soon rent them at a much lower price that of the market to people willing to open shops of a lifetime, that in this way the City Council would combat the commercial monoculture that impoverishes Barcelona so much. Let’s talk about the Amunt Persianes program.
And among these 18 establishments that are still in limbo is that of El Ingenio, the historic shop in the Gothic Quarter that closed definitively in 2019. The City Council spent one and a half million on the purchase of these low-rise, of nearly 500 m2, but he has not yet found a project that will bring him back to life. And on top of that, another 600,000 euros must be spent to renovate it.
The Consistory believes that this premises has not yet received any requests mainly due to its poor condition and the cost of adaptation. Therefore, he started an urgent process to undertake works as soon as possible to guarantee the safety and protection of the heritage elements. These works must be ready at the beginning of next year. And Rosa Cardona, former owner of El Ingenio, receives the news with some surprise.
“Well – he says – before the works begin we will have to empty the premises. We still have a lot of molds and figures there that are ours. In addition, some heritage elements also belong to us. Not all of them are from the City Council. What happens is that we have to agree with the City Council to enter, because they want to be present, and we have been like this for several years now, and we have not been able to agree. Let’s see if they are in a hurry to do the works now, we will be able to understand each other…”.
Unfortunately, the Amunt Persianes program became an administrative waste. The City Council, shortly after that cheerful presentation, organized a few visits by many of these low-income people, but soon lost sight of the matter. In fact, it immediately stopped answering the e-mails of those interested. And after La Vanguardia detailed what was happening last November, sources from the new socialist executive assured that the awards of the establishments would be “imminent”.
At the moment none of the 35 premises acquired is in operation. And it is still not at all clear when the 18 will be whose selection, like that of El Ingenio, was deserted. Municipal sources point out that once the City Council has definitively closed the awarding of the 17 premises that finally had proposals considered viable, it will consider what to do with the others.
“Currently, we are closing the call for projects procedure – City Council sources now say – with the signing of the rental contracts for the 17 premises that have finally had proposals considered viable. We anticipate that the procedure will be closed before the summer”. Among the selected initiatives we find neither bakeries nor hardware stores nor haberdashery… just a bookstore, a hairdresser, a pastry shop… and also a yoga center, a couple of coworking spaces, a theater academy, a trade association, a sociocultural space dedicated to social transformation, a work, exhibition and audiovisual production center for podcasters and streamers with ticketing service…
