The Catalan businessman Juan Parada Henares, promoter of the building damaged by the fire in Valencia in which ten people died, pointed out to La Vanguardia yesterday that he did not know the technical conditions and materials of the project: "This was prepared by an office of architects, I only bought the land with the project already approved". In a short telephone conversation he stated that he was "very affected by what happened, personally and emotionally. My lawyers are working on the case."
The owner of FBEX, a developer that went bankrupt in 2010, added that he did not know what materials that facade was made of. "There were architects, engineers, and everything was done in accordance with the permits that had already been granted." Nervous in the conversation, he insisted that he did not wish to continue talking about a matter that is under judicial investigation, but insisted that "everything was done in accordance with the law, like all the buildings we did at that time and that they were of the highest quality". He assured that his promoter had an "extensive structure of good professionals who built sixty works that year alone, and all of them legal".
The developer of the damaged building, FBEX, had more than 10,000 homes planned in Spain in 2005, at the height of the real estate boom. Its operations were concentrated in 60 promotions in Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia and the Balearic Islands. The turnover in 2007 was 158 million euros, when its bank debt exceeded 1,100 million euros. It is suspected that some of the materials used on the facade of the Campanar building were highly flammable and facilitated the rapid spread of a fire which, according to the first reports of the National Police's scientific police, started with a short circuit in the automatic system to collect and extend the awning of the house where the fire started and at that time with the tenant outside. The strong gusts of west wind blowing that afternoon did the rest.
The Campanar tragedy, in which half a hundred pets, mostly dogs and cats, also died, has caused a wave of material reviews of buildings built during the real estate boom and which used similar cladding for the facade .
The firm was under suspicion when the promoter had to testify as a witness before judge Pablo Ruz in the case he investigated for an alleged money laundering crime Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, firstborn of the former president of the Generalitat de Catalunya, as published by La Vanguardia in 2007. In an interview with El Mundo that same year, Juan Parada spoke of expanding his field of business in Aragon, Asturias and Cantabria, until reaching the entirety of Spanish territory. He was interested in getting land for officially protected housing.
In March 2008, the firm began negotiations with 33 banks and savings banks to postpone the payment of part of its financial debt, which amounted to 1.1 billion euros in the case of its parent company. The refinancing was limited to 600 million, which is the debt linked to the purchase of finalist land for promotions. In May 2010, he filed bankruptcy proceedings at commercial court number 8 in Barcelona, with a debt of 640 million, after not having been able to reach an agreement with the financial institutions to refinance it. Legal sources indicated that the main creditors were Caixa Catalunya, Caja del Mediterráneo, Caixa Penedès and Sa Nostra, among others.
The building in Valencia was built in 2005, in the midst of a real estate boom, and is located in one of the most luxurious areas of Valencia, in the Campanar district. Composed of two towers, it had 143 homes and was inhabited by more than 400 residents. The flats came to cost more than 300,000 euros, according to neighbors; a very high figure in relation to the prices they could have at present.
The developer sold this building as a "top quality" product. In the promotional video, FBEX talked about "two avant-garde and unique buildings united by a spectacular panoramic elevator". He added that "with facades covered with an innovative alucobond type material". "The building offers the highest quality of construction, with the application of rigorous quality controls throughout the building process."
The building received the go-ahead from the Fire Prevention Department of Valencia City Council in 2005, when they handed over the keys to the buyers. It was the same year in which, in July, the final license was granted to the property, which had all the papers in order. This information has been provided by the Valencia City Council to the court investigating the case.
Yesterday the president of the General Council of Architecture of Spain (CGATE), Alfredo Sanz, assessed, in the face of the unknown whether the homes will be rebuilt or demolished pending the investigation, that, "unless the expert tests rule otherwise , the concrete structure is in perfect condition and, in principle, it does not seem to present any problems”. That is, it could be rebuilt despite the damage it has suffered. Another thing will be the confidence that the neighbors have to live there again.
