Attached to what is known as the Valencia automobile avenue, is the Vara de Quart industrial estate, which also gives its name to the neighborhood in front of which it is located. Right now it houses, on its exterior façade, dealerships, large distribution stores, gas stations and even a funeral home, and in its streets, in addition to numerous companies, there is the center of a large insurance company, the workshop of a well-known pastry shop or the headquarters of the two main Valencian local newspapers.
A diversified economic activity that has added, since 2018, a large driving company such as Mercadona, which opened its Colmena there, the exclusive store for online sales. From this logistics center, of 13,000 square meters and where 12 million euros were invested in its construction, a large part of the province of Valencia is served. Employs 400 people.
It is one of the spaces that the Vara de Quart renovation project recognizes, in its economic strategy, as a benchmark. The document is signed by the team of engineer Miquel Barceló, who presented it in Valencia a few weeks ago together with the deputy mayor Sandra Gómez.
Barceló has been entrusted with the task of converting this industrial area of Valencia into an "innovative district", and it will do so by fighting against the so-called "Valencian paradox". Because the Valencian capital is rich in innovation and creativity, but Barceló and team explain that, "when you look at the economic aggregates, in terms of production, added value and income per capital, it is below the Spanish average and that is the result of a traditional production structure.
This is what the project wants to reverse, generate with public and private investment opportunities to attract talent. The former president of the 22@ society in Barcelona understands that "today the most dynamic cities in the world organize themselves in competition to attract international talent, this is great capacity, because talent entails investment and the ability to create a productive fabric , it is a contrasted reality", he explains in conversation with La Vanguardia.
For this reason, in its diagnostic and strategic document of the future innovative district, it lists up to 12 success stories in which València can look at itself. And one of them is Barcelona, whose 22@ district Barceló knows inside out, as he contributed to its design.
"Now 20 years ago, a group of innovators thought intuitively, without a clear model, that urban planning had to be done that mixed different uses and that this had to be coordinated with the city's economic strategy to create an innovative ecosystem. 22@ has been a success story, the public-private pact incorporated the management, the leadership... although now it has its weaknesses", explains Barceló.
Barcelona is a reference, but not the only one for the Valencian proposal. The strategic document has identified up to 12 and distinguishes them by specialties. For example, the Bairro Alto in Lisbon as a model for the development of cultural industries; the Food Valley of the Netherlands, specializing in agri-food; or the Smart Innovation Norway of Norway, specialized in renewable energies.
Vara de Quart will specialize in agri-food, cultural and creative industries, digital and renewable energies. It already has leading companies such as Mercadona on its land, more than 60 high-intensity hectares that will be transformed in line with 21st-century urbanism.
"The cities of the 20th century are not sustainable for the reasons that we already know, and now different cities are created in which there are mixtures of uses, co-governance, based on an economic strategy," he points out.
The objective is to put an end to the so-called "Valencian paradox", a term that Barceló develops and that explains how Valencia is rich in innovation and creativity, but “when you look at the economic aggregates, in terms of production, added value and income per capital, it is below the Spanish average and that is the result of a traditional productive structure”.
In this sense, the deputy mayor of Valencia and promoter of this project from the Urban Planning area, Sandra Gómez, has recognized that Valencia lacks "innovative spaces that would allow it to make the qualitative leap it needed to consolidate itself in the innovation sector and attract companies with added value.
The innovation estate wants to become a focus of economic activity and job creation, "a complementary space to the offer of La Marina", where the offer of offices is insufficient for the wishes of the market.
But beyond the concept, the design becomes tangible with concrete proposals. In about five years, the industrial estate, the only urban one in the cap i casal, would have new offices to locate startups, companies, co-working spaces for entrepreneurs, but also residential spaces that would alternate different formulas: colivings, common residences, etc. In the design of the future Vara de Quart innovative estate, the construction of a thousand homes is contemplated and between 30 and 40% of them will be publicly owned.
In short, the idea is to mix many uses and take advantage of the "strong knowledge base that the city has, with an intense innovative dynamic, enhancing it", summarizes the Catalan engineer.
