The Thyssen Museum challenge in Barcelona collides with three massive shops within the coronary heart of town | News from Catalonia | EUROtoday

Carmen Cervera, Baroness of Thyssen, needs to open a museum with a part of her creative assortment within the heart of Barcelona. She has a pre-agreement with an funding fund, Stoneweg, and with the household that owns the property the place the artwork gallery is deliberate to be put in, which till months in the past housed the historic Comedia cinema. But the challenge has an financial drawback that also must be solved. In that very same property, three massive shops coexist even supposing they’re on land categorized as gear, which is why, sources in the actual property sector clarify, the house owners may have to offer them up, and the revenue that their leases supply, in the event that they intend to acquire authorization. to renovate the constructing and set up the brand new Carmen Thyssen Museum.

Technical conferences have already taken place to handle the way forward for the challenge. And one of many factors that emerged is the scenario of the shops at present occupied by the manufacturers Massimo Dutti (on Gran Via, in a three-story retailer), Guess and Oysho (the latter on the Passeig de Gràcia facet) . Sources from the actual property sector guarantee that in Barcelona there are a lot of precarious premises like these, occupying areas for a use that has nothing to do with tertiary use.

The drawback comes when it needs to be regularized to have the ability to do the works. And the technicians are dedicated to writing a particular plan. This process would enable for the most important renovation that your entire property will want, however it could imply sustaining it as gear and, due to this fact, the tip of all industrial and restaurant actions that aren’t linked to the cultural exercise of the museum (some cafeteria as a complement and a store ). “If the special plan is not made, the cultural equipment cannot be made,” explains an individual accustomed to the challenge, who explains that there’s already an area subsequent to the Guess retailer that, regardless of having promoting for that model, is closed. . Other sources consulted level to the opportunity of overcoming the impediment via a modification of the General Metropolitan Plan, which if the municipal technicians agreed can be an extended process than that of the particular plan.

The house owners don’t wish to hand over the industrial makes use of of those three shops, which some sources think about may have a mixed floor space of ​​about 2,000 sq. meters. The revenue they obtain from them is excessive, since Passeig de Gràcia has turn into the costliest road in Spain, with common costs of about 3,000 euros per sq. meter, in keeping with a report final 12 months by the consulting agency Cushman & Wakefield.

The household house owners, led by the earlier president of the Círculo Ecuestre, Antonio Delgado, imagine that they’ve the proper to keep up the institutions of their present position. “The commercial premises located on Paseo de Gràcia 13, which date back to 1924, are fully legal,” he explains through e-mail, “since they were open to the public in accordance with the regulations in force at that time. The General Metropolitan Plan, which dates back to 1976, modified land uses in Barcelona, ​​which affects a good part of the city's buildings, such as the premises housed in this building. Despite this change of use, the premises can maintain their activity completely normally as they were prior to the modification.”

Barcelona City Council sees the long run museum as a complement to the enlargement of the present cultural providing with the enlargement of the Macba and the MNAC and avoids coming into into controversy. However, a spokesperson signifies that every little thing will likely be achieved, “as it cannot be otherwise,” legally and that the completely different devices which will ultimately must be processed will likely be accompanied. “The Comedia building is privately owned and it is up to it to define the future and uses of this building, and depending on what is ultimately decided, the appropriate planning will have to be processed,” say municipal sources.

The unique sin lies in the truth that the property doesn’t have a horizontal division and all of the properties that comprise it are a bunch certified with code 7b, which is gear. Sources accustomed to the challenge guarantee that if the constructing's proprietor thinks within the brief time period, sustaining the exercise of its rental shops will likely be extra worthwhile, however not if it thinks in the long run. Stoneweg proposes a complete renovation of the constructing, which might enable it to go from the present 7,000 meters of floor space to a volumetry with a floor space of ​​practically 10,000 sq. meters. But the industrial supply can be restricted to what’s standard in a museum: cafeteria and a retailer linked to its exercise. The challenge promoters would pay hire for the area, though they’d be accountable for the mandatory funding within the constructing. At the second, there’s solely a pre-agreement.

The CEO of the Thyssen Collection Group, José Daniel Barquero, trusts that the calendars of the Thyssen Museum within the previous Comedia cinema will likely be fulfilled in “a year and a half or two years.” In a phone dialog, the businessman and diplomat expressed satisfaction with the assembly held on Thursday between Baroness Carmen Thyssen and Mayor Jaume Collboni at Barcelona City Hall. An appointment during which the Baroness defined the artwork gallery challenge and to which they attended supported by their respective groups and members of Stoneweg's funding group. “It was a very good and positive meeting,” he summarizes. “If something was clear to us when explaining our plan, it is that the mayor wants to do things for the city and add projects. And this is a project that suits Barcelona. The museum will generate hundreds of jobs and will attract many visits,” he added.

The Thyssen group's plan is to exhibit sooner or later area round 450 Catalan artistic endeavors from the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty first centuries from the baroness' assortment. “Carmen Thyssen will exhibit the world's most important collection of Catalan art,” she emphasised. Barquero has maintained that the response of the remainder of town's massive museums to the long run opening of the artwork gallery within the coronary heart of Passeig de Gràcia has been optimistic. “We have support from all the museums. We were finalists along with 15 other projects that were looking to take over that space. “We are working for Barcelona to take a step forward and further strengthen its cultural offering,” he summarized.

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