The City Council of Figueres (Girona) is looking for a solution to be able to finish the rehabilitation works of the Casino Menestral, stopped since 2010.
In 2015, the entity approved the proposal made by the previous government team led by Marta Felip to create a heritage foundation through which the property was transferred to the council so that the administrations could contribute the money to complete the project, about 5 million of euros.
The agreement was challenged by some partners, although, finally, the court rejected it.
Now, the new government team has resumed conversations with the board, to which it has proposed that the entity transfer the property to the City Council and the latter, in turn, give them usufruct for 99 years.
Work on this emblematic building began in 2004 but has suffered several stoppages, always for the same reason: lack of financing. The first time was in 2007 and they resumed in 2010, with the completion of practically all the reform. Since then, the interior intervention of the modernist building, which is part of the Architectural Heritage Inventory of Catalonia, has been pending.
In 2015, a solution was proposed to allow public administrations to continue investing money in the historic equipment. The proposal involved the creation of a heritage foundation through which the entity transferred its property to the City Council.
The proposal was put to a vote in an extraordinary assembly but some members, dissatisfied with the decision, challenged it. At the end of 2016, the court dismissed the lawsuit and concluded that no rights were violated.
The proposal was stopped. In 2019, with Jordi Masquef as mayor, the proposal was resumed with the aim of obtaining a mortgage loan by contributing the property to obtain the missing money, which was then estimated at around 2.5 million euros.
Now, the government team has met again with the president of the entity, Violeta Llueca. "For us, the solution is to transfer the property and give them the right of usufruct for the maximum number of years allowed by law, which would be about 99 years," explains Masquef.
As ACN has learned, the proposal has already been presented to the entity's partners and both parties are currently studying it. "In the end, any option will be fine with us as long as it is blessed by municipal services," Masquef insists. Of course, he emphasizes, "the partners are sovereign to decide."
The hope is that the vote can be held before the end of the year. Masquef insists that the desire is for other administrations to get involved and that, to speed it up, it is important that it be unblocked as soon as possible.
