The seafront has long been working to be more accessible to Barcelona residents, breaking the barrier that separates it from the city. The World Trade Center (WTC) Barcelona also wants to do this, updating its public spaces and making them more attractive to people outside this business park, which houses some forty companies and 2,800 workers.
The business center will invest ten million euros in the coming years to reform its facilities, allocating a good part of the resources to opening up to the Catalan capital and becoming a place where everyone can go for a walk. The 2,500 square meter plaza and terraces will be modernized to be more friendly, welcoming, and green, explains the technical manager of the World Trade Center Barcelona, Massimo D'Alessio, emphasizing in turn the attractiveness they offer to the companies installed there. This opening is already done on specific occasions, such as Sant Jordi or Christmas, with the installation of an ice rink or a fir forest, but now a step forward is desired.
Around seven million euros will be dedicated to this renovation of the exterior area of the World Trade Center, which still needs to be defined, both the content and the schedule of the works. The management is working with 2023 as the maximum date, but the intention is to have it finished sooner.
All this is in line with the transformation that the Port of Barcelona, the main owner of the office complex, is also carrying out, with the organization of the infrastructure. The institution reached an agreement with the Barcelona City Council in 2018 to move cruises and ferries as far as possible from the city, displacing them to the Adossat Wharf. In the case of the World Trade Center, this affects the North and South Terminals.
Improvement of services to companies
In addition to the updating of public spaces, the reform of the World Trade Center includes incorporating new services for the companies it houses in its 130,000 square meters. These works have already begun and are expected to be completed in six months.
With a budget of 2.5 million euros, the business center will renovate its lighting and air conditioning system, and will locate a pop-up store designed for local businesses that address sustainability, also contributing to opening up to the city. While the works last, this space will be used to inform potential interested parties in settling in the World Trade Center about the renovation that will be carried out until 2023.
The works to offer new services to companies in the World Trade Center have already begun and are expected to be finished in six months.This first phase of the complex's transformationit will also include installing new parking lots and expanding the gym. Specifically, an underground bicycle parking will be created, with 200 spaces, 20 of which will include electric charging, where there will also be bicycle cleaning and maintenance services, and near the building's entrance, a parking area for scooters and folding bicycles will be located, with 73 and 48 lockers, respectively. Likewise, a new space for intensive sports activities, dance, and body and mind will be built in the gym. The gym will also incorporate a new shower and changing room area.
Finally, a space will be added that is intended to serve as a meeting point for the nearly 3,000 workers in the business center. According to the Marketing Manager of the World Trade Center, Judith Llorente, the We take care room has been designed as a place to go to rest, hold a meeting, or make a video call. It will also become the venue for activities organized for employees, such as workshops, talks, or exhibitions. "It will serve to make the World Trade Center not just a place to go to work, but where to be part of a community," Llorente emphasizes, an objective to which the gym also contributes, adds the Property Manager, Francesc Muncunill.
All these services will be added to those already offered at the World Trade Center of Barcelona, such as a congress area, meeting rooms, restaurants, bank branches, a pharmacy, and the parking lot in the building. A total of 45 companies are located in this complex, most of them international. Among them are Accord Healthcare and Teleperformance. It also houses the offices of the Port Authority of Barcelona, which controls 77% of the property, along with FCC, which owns 33%.
Impact of the pandemic
The new services respond to the demands of business park workers, gathered through surveys and incorporated into a business plan that was defined at the end of 2019. With the pandemic, D'Alessio explains, employees' needs have remained and, in fact, the need to create more community among them has been reinforced. The coronavirus has meant incorporating an intelligent control system into the facilities, which will serve for issues such as regulating capacity and knowing how many times spaces have been cleaned.
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