Let's give just three examples. Diagrama Building, on Pere IV Street. Almogàvers, 214. Àlaba, 111. Three disused buildings in what is known as the technological district of Barcelona. According to a study by l'Observatori dels Barris del Poblenou, today 42% of the offices in 22@ are empty. Specifically, 336,203 m2 without activity, four out of ten. And currently only a third of the 22@ designed in 2000 has been completed. That is to say, there would still be a million and a half more square meters of offices to build.
When 23 years ago the socialist mayor Joan Clos decided to intervene in the nearly 200 hectares of industrial land in the Sant Martí district, there was a clear desire: to preserve the productive character of an area that had been the epicenter of the industrial revolution in Catalonia. The neighborhood was transformed from top to bottom for the better, without a doubt. The pickaxe demolished the industrial warehouses and, in their place, office blocks were built that changed the appearance of a previously dirty site with industrial fumes.
One of the first urban innovation districts in the world was born. An area that was intended to be strategic, dedicated to technological entrepreneurship, but within a compact city model, with a mix of office, housing, equipment and green space uses. An exciting idea that has been doing well as a leader in attracting innovation companies, universities and coworking centers... Until now. Today 22@ faces the crisis of empty offices.
Two decades later, neighbors complain and say that the model has water leaks. They talk about gentrification, night and weekend desertification, and the abandonment of certain parts of the district.
The truth is that technology companies have stopped their operations due to the paralysis of the financing market. That, on the one hand. And on the other hand, since the pandemic, teleworking (three days in the office, two at home) has been imposed in this sector. If there are no companies to fill the current empty space and some offices have already become obsolete, who knows what will happen when everything is built, not in the short term but in the next ten years.
We must open the debate. And more so because, in parallel, housing prices in the city continue to rise. Until last year, 1,973 homes had been built of the original 22@, half of those planned. In the last modification of the plan, in February 2022, the City Council approved a ratio of 70/30 (for every 7 new offices, 3 homes), although this solution does not please the neighbors either, fearful that it will serve to open the door to free market, not the official protection one.
Should empty offices be converted into homes? Is the slowdown in business acquisition in 22@ temporary or structural? And the technology crisis, how long will it last? Should we trust a change in the market cycle? Questions abound as suspicion hovers over whether, beyond the big business of land appreciation, some investment funds have dedicated themselves to accumulating properties and waiting... to later resell at a gold price.
