An agreement between the Barcelona City Council and Conren Tramway, the real estate company that owns two empty buildings in Les Tres Xemeneies, unblocks the future of this space in Paral·lel. On the one hand, the City Council will facilitate a change in urban planning so that one of the two buildings, the one located at Vilà i Vilà 40, can house offices of any type, since currently it can only house facilities and offices of companies linked to the supply of essential services.
In exchange, Conren Tramway would transfer ownership of the other building to the council, the lower one, where the Barcelona Emergency Operational Coordination Center (CECOR) is planned to be installed. In addition, the real estate developer owned by the Hugas brothers will assume the cost of redeveloping the square's gardens and will transfer 6.2 million to the city for housing and neighborhood facilities. The total value of the transfers that have been necessary to unblock the project in Les Tres Xemeneies is estimated at more than eleven million euros.
Mayor Ada Colau highlighted at a press conference that it is a "great day" for the Poble-sec neighborhood because the transformation of the area has been "unblocked" thanks to the agreement. In this sense, Colau explained that the change in planning will allow the property to create offices, but there will also be "a return for the neighborhood and the city," reports ACN.
Currently, the land where the Tres Xemeneies buildings are located is classified as technical services – urban key 4 – so they can only house facilities and offices of companies linked to the supply of essential services such as electricity, water, gas, and telecommunications.
According to the deputy mayor, Janet Sanz, as a result of the agreement, the City Council agrees to change the classification of the plots to provide them with tertiary uses, which will "considerably" increase their value. This will allow the developer to market the tallest building, with about 20,300 m² built, to house offices for all types of companies. Paco Hugas, representative of Conren Tramway, pointed out that a "new stage" is opening for the company, which bought the building in 2017, but has not been able to attract economic activity in all these years.
The other Conren Tramway building, also empty and located at Paral·lel 51, will be transferred to the City Council, which will reclassify it to turn it into a public facility. It is a 2,500 m² space where the CECOR, the Barcelona Emergency Operational Coordination Center, is planned to be installed, occupying the entire surface.
Transformation of the square and facilities
The definitive proposal includes transfers from the private company to the city valued at a total of 11.2 million euros, according to municipal data. Thus, apart from transferring the building where CECOR will be installed, the promoters of Conren Tramway will also take charge of the redevelopment of the gardens, valued at 2.7 million euros, and will transfer 6.6 million euros to the city – 2.2 from 10% of the urban development profit from the operation plus an additional contribution of 4 million – which the council will allocate to new facilities and affordable housing for the neighborhood.
The initial approval of the Modification of the Metropolitan General Plan (MPGM) that includes all the changes is expected to take place in the Commission of Ecology, Urban Planning, Infrastructures and Mobility (CEUIM) in March, and it is expected to be definitively approved between July and September.
With the initial approval of the planning, the municipal government plans to commission the drafting of the projects for the new CECOR headquarters and the redevelopment of the gardens to be able to carry out the works on both spaces in the next term. In the case of the gardens, works are expected to begin in the summer of 2024.
On the other hand, the license for the offices in the Torre building is expected to be obtained in autumn 2023. Thus, the idea is that all works in the space can be coordinated and begin in 2024.