22@ calls for restrictions to be lifted to breathe life into the area
22@ is missing a few cherries to fill him with joy. Take an evening drive through Barcelona’s tech district, when the forgotten curves of offices light up the streets through glass and the bakery where people buy snacks rolls down its blinds, and you’ll feel like you’re crossing a dystopian ford that’s always in shadow. anxious, until suddenly Poblenou bursts in and again you see people, shops still open, terraces…
“22@ is an unfinished success story,” says Jaime Hugas of investment firm Conren Tramway. The city council was right to promote the revitalization of an area that had suffered a long process of industrial decline. Now we need to dive deeper into the mix of use cases. But this is not possible since license suspensions aimed at improving coexistence are still in force. We have promoted six office buildings in 22@ and made their ground floors available for commercial use because we believe that accessibility to services adds value to neighbors and users. When managers are looking for offices, they are always interested in the services offered. The truth is that the number of people who go out to eat or drink coffee is very limited here. “Constraints often force them to offer value propositions to their employees that include services on their own premises.” Other managers, however, are looking for other opportunities, they are looking for other directions.
Two employees eat in the park near their workplace
“Look,” Hugas adds, “the City of London was the same in the 90s, and when night fell it became soulless. Later, office buildings were converted into residential buildings and businesses opened. It is filled with life and the rest is history. We are optimistic because we hear that the City Council has been working hard on this issue and that it will be resolved soon. Stay with the idea that Barcelona’s future is in 22@.” The truth is that Barcelona has always favored mixed land use. It’s part of your DNA. But mixtures are always complex.
“The City of London in the 90s was barren at night until the shops opened.”
To protect local recreation and local trade, and to stop monoculture, the government of Mayor Jaume Colboni in December 2023 suspended for one year licenses for music, restaurant and food operations in most of the Sant Martí area. Goal: Update the area use plan. The plan, which is still in effect, already stipulates that within three years of the change taking effect in September 2016, the City Council will assess the need for a revision. In addition, the modification of the Metropolitan Master Plan, aimed at strengthening a more inclusive and sustainable 22@, also determined that four months from its entry into force in June 2022, work will begin to adjust the definitions of the Sant Martí use plan. Business owners understand that it is time to clarify these restrictions.
Terrace located in the technological district of Barcelona.
“This is now a fundamental issue when it comes to attracting talent,” says Javier Bernardez of real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield. The world is changing, and 22@ must change with it to continue to write a success story. 22@ continues to attract a lot of interest far beyond Barcelona, but the competition is fierce. “It needs a vibrant urban environment.” You walk along 22@ and in front of the doors of the buildings you find ping-pong tables, even some sports fields, and inside there are even canteens, gyms, terraces, table football, billiard tables… “But having attractive offices is not enough,” continues Bernard, —. Companies are reimagining their workplaces as the pandemic is behind us. But talent is not forced, it is convinced. You have to offer them a whole way of life.”
Municipal sources report that Mayor Colboni’s leadership has committed to creating social housing and urban greening. In addition, in a few months it is planned to approve a new plan for the use of the territory. “In this process,” the sources emphasize, “the city council is exploring various options aimed at diversifying economic activities and bringing them into line with the daily life of the area.”
“Talents are not forced, they must be persuaded, otherwise they will go somewhere else”
Susana Prados, the new president of the business platform 22@ Network Barcelona, which already has more than 250 members, explains that “we are currently preparing a document with the new needs of 22@ to present to the city council. It seems to us that the municipal authorities are in a good mood. We’re talking about bars and restaurants, as well as homes and kindergartens. All this contributes to strengthening the competitiveness of 22@. We still have a lot of free space. We are committed to the fifteen-minute city and diverse land uses. We also understand that social balance is very important to ensure the sustainability of the city’s technology district. In fact, we are working on a plan for next year to open 22@ to the rest of Sant Martí in order to offer some of our premises to residents so that they can also host cultural events, meetings of various associations… . »
New challenges of the technology district
Xavier Güell, director of property consultancy CBRE in Barcelona, says 22@ has faced difficult times in 2022 and 2023 “due to a high number of short-term completions and a global decline in demand.” But this year, Güell continues, “the trend has changed: hiring has increased and unemployment has stabilized. “It was just a matter of time.” The technology district’s new challenges are more urban in nature, the analyst adds. Because 22@ accumulates 28% of the entire city’s offices, but only 6% of its population. Here we have about 15 m2 of offices per resident, while in the rest of Barcelona there are only two. “At CBRE, we believe in bringing more homes, shops and restaurants to the area. But these uses can only be harmoniously integrated through a specific modification of the Metropolitan Master Plan. If we do not act, this imbalance, already the highest in the city, will increase even further in the coming years.” This, Güell concludes, is another step in this success story: “the transformation of the industrial area to adapt to the new needs of the city. 25% of buildings in Barcelona are class A, and 70% of them are class 22@.”