Thirty-odd commercial premises purchased by the City Council nearly two years ago still languish waiting to welcome businesses. We are talking about an investment of 17 and a half million. This is the last limp of a very exciting program that soon turned into administrative nonsense. One landlord even took advantage of the small print on the Amunt shutters to evict the tenants from him. Some of these evicted merchants are now demanding compensation from the City Council.
This story begins at the end of 2021. The then deputy mayors Jordi Martí and Jaume Collboni announce the purchase of 50 stores to undermine commercial monoculture, to rent them to people willing to set up local businesses, to stop the loss of traditional stores . Among them was El Ingenio, the common and the socialist stood out. The ERC councilors proposed this idea to the Ada Colau executive in the budget negotiations. London, Paris and other cities had similar ideas.
“A year ago there was someone in charge of showing this ground floor – say residents of 6 Rocafort, in Sant Antoni – but he soon stopped coming. Sometimes an interested party arrives, but no one answers the contact email. We tried to get them to come and clean up the graffiti, but they didn't pay attention to us either.” The City Council spent 580,800 euros on this location. And one collects very similar testimonies in Sants, Vila de Gràcia, Dreta de l'Eixample... La Vanguardia approached fifteen of these places, and found no trace of human activity.
“They set up open days – they say next to 98 Rambla Badal, a ground floor that cost 640,000 –, but no one has come for a year.” Next to 63 Bailén they say they never saw anyone visiting this place. This is illustrated by the thickness of the dry leaves that pile up behind the fence. Its price was 260,000. “Only the one who put up the sign came here,” they say at 17 Bartomeu Pi. Here they paid 140,000. And the same is heard in Josep Tarradelles, Ramon Turro, Sant Salvador, Josep Pla, Bolivia, Mistral, Verdi...
The sad state of the façade of El Ingenio is quite a metaphor. The situation greatly bothers those of ERC, also promoters of the idea. “The deadline for submitting applications to rent these premises ended in January,” says councilor Jordi Castellana. In the Economy Commission we will ask the government when it will award them. These delays killed the idea.” Castellana wonders how long an individual interested in opening a hardware store, for example, can wait to find out whether or not they will rent premises.
Municipal sources respond to La Vanguardia that the awarding of the premises “is imminent.” “There have been delays due to changes in the bodies to make the adjudications.” The sources add that once the premises are awarded among the highest-rated projects, “the bases of the call provide for the holding of a second round in the first quarter of 2024 where the premises that were deserted will be offered to the initiatives with the highest score that were left. without premises.”
In the end, the number of premises acquired was lower than that announced by the then deputy mayors Martí and Collboni because the City Council stopped the purchase of 16 behind the Les Corts market after the ERC councilors denounced that the owner was evicting the merchants installed there to be able to close the deal with the City Council. The biggest requirement of Amunt Persianes is that the premises are empty at the time of purchase. But the municipal stoppage did not stop the evictions.
The place is now a wasteland of drawn shutters. Some closed, others moved. Two demand compensation from the City Council, but they also say that the City Council does not even respond to them. The Ombudsman did agree with them. “If the City Council had not gotten involved we would still be here. For a small business, a move is an expense of time, effort and money.” Municipal sources indicate that these claims are being investigated.
