Almost two years after the announcement of the transformation of the Tres Xemeneies de Sant Adrià de Besòs into a large audiovisual, digital and video game hub, Catalunya Media City, the Government yesterday approved the signing of the agreement between the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance through which the State transfers 60 million euros to the Generalitat to promote the project. This happens a few days after the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia has admitted to processing the contentious administrative appeal of the Salvem el Litoral platform against the Tres Xemeneies urban plan, because they complain that the area wants to be turned into a large neighborhood with 1,800 homes on the sea front "in a flood zone", and they believe that the cultural hub makes up an urban planning operation. The signing of the agreement was one of the agreements that had been pending between the Generalitat and the Spanish Government in the previous legislature.
The 60 million euros, which can be executed annually until 2026, will have to be used for "the first actions to make the complex a reality, such as the contracting and preparation of the project and the works of the Nau Turbines", where 'must install spaces for training, research and development in the digital and audiovisual field. The building is currently owned by the Generalitat, which has signed an agreement with the councils of Sant Adrià and Badalona, the Consorci del Besòs. At the moment, the functional plan is still being drafted.
Apart from the initial work at the Tres Xemeneies, the money will also go towards the construction of new sets at the Parc Audiovisual de Catalunya, in Terrassa, which will expand the facilities and form part of the Catalunya Media City hub itself.
Catalunya Media City is an ambitious public-private initiative to try to transform the old thermal power plant - it operated between 1973 and 2011 -, an indestructible figure in the urban landscape of Besòs, into a world benchmark in the audiovisual, digital and video game sectors, and at the same time build a new neighborhood there. The intention of the Generalitat is for it to be finished before 2030, with a total investment of around 450 million euros. In a visit to the facilities a few months ago, President Aragonès cataloged it as "one of the country's great strategic bets that will allow us to attract foreign investment to the area, with great international productions, and for the extraordinary talent we have to emerge in Catalonia". According to the president, "it will allow the country's audiovisual and digital industry to be an engine at European level. And that it does so hand in hand with the promotion of the Catalan language with the creation of audiovisual content in Catalan”. "We will make the iconic image of a thermal power station become an iconic image of Catalan audiovisual", he concluded.
Promoted by the Ministry of Culture, the hub hopes to bring together the collaboration of the public sector, academic institutions (university, training, research and development), companies and civil society.
The project, which also includes the port of arrival for the intercontinental fiber undersea cable, aims to attract industry with state-of-the-art sets with digital sets, creative and production equipment, a state-of-the-art data center and even an e-sports stadium, as well as research and training centers (which is one of the reasons for installing it near the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya).
