The first piece of the real estate tetris that the City Council is planning for the Gòtic is about to fall into place. The municipal government has approved the definitive project for the rehabilitation of the building at Via Laietana 8-10, the large building located in a privileged location that was the seat of the courts of first instance in Barcelona and which has been empty for several years years. In this place, it is planned to enable some modern offices for administrative use that will house around 700 City Council workers, officials who are currently scattered in five different buildings in the neighborhood, some of which are particularly uncomfortable.
The first works will basically consist of the rehabilitation of the structure and the interior insulation of the noucentista-style building, which has approximately 22,000 m2 of floor space spread over eight floors and two underground. With a budget of 8.86 million euros, work will begin in the second half of November and will last 15 months. The three highest floors will be completely rehabilitated and specific actions will be taken on the rest. Common spaces such as the entrances and the lobby, shared with the National Statistics Institute, which currently maintains administrative activities on the ground and first floors, will also be adapted.
The rest of the empty building has been waiting for its moment for years. With the rehabilitation work underway, the works that will provide content to the municipal offices will arrive later, the project of which is still being drafted and which is expected to be completed at the beginning of next year. The intention of those responsible for the project is that the end of the structural work can be overlapped with the beginning of the content at the end of next year, with the intention that throughout 2025 the workers will be able to open their new place of work
We say that all this is a real estate tetris game for the City Council because when all the workers move to Via Laietana as their new daily destination, five municipally owned buildings will be free. These are numbers 7, 15 and 32 of Carrer Avinyó, 3 of Ciutat and 14 of Paradís, where there are now workers from various economic areas of the Consistory. The intention of the municipal government is to convert these buildings into public housing. The forecast is to gain 5,600 m2 to build flats, which can give rise to enabling around seventy public housing units. In addition, 1,500 m2 more will be added to the low-rises to open commercial premises that will go on the market through the official protection low-rise program which seeks to facilitate the creation of local commerce in places colonized by businesses designed for tourists.
The last move of the Tetrisimmobiliari orchestrated by the City Council also involves the transfer to Via Laietana of the Management of Prevention and Security, located in the municipal building in Plaça Pi i Sunyer. Part of this showy building will be given to the Generalitat to install the new primary care center in the Gòtic, as the one in Passage de la Pau is clearly insufficient for now. For all this, the councilor of Ciutat Vella, Albert Batlle, emphasizes that "this operation responds to several historical shortcomings of the district such as the lack of public housing and fundamental health facilities".
At the same time, Batlle highlights the economic boost that the new large municipal building will bring to the area, "an objective that is currently being carried out with other operations such as that of the Post Office building", where the Consortium of the Zona Franca plans to create a digital innovation center for technological companies alongside the environment of innovation centers and emerging companies promoted by Tech Barcelona in recent years.
