One of the last hotels to open in the center of Barcelona, on Casp Street at the end of 2021. Carles Ribas
Absolute outrage and willingness to fight “on the streets and in court.” Residents of the Ciutat Vella, Eixample and Poblenou districts strongly reject the possibility that the Barcelona City Council will allow the opening of new hotels in the most central areas of the Tourist Accommodation Urban Plan (PEUAT), one of the most important legacies of former mayor Ada Colau. The clear “no” comes after the agreement between Junts and the government of Mayor Jaume Collboni (PSC) this Tuesday in the Urban Planning Commission to amend the PEUAT and allow the opening of “unique hotels” in areas where openings are currently taking place forbidden. They are Zone 1 (Ciutat Vella, part of Eixample, Gràcia or Poblenou); and Zone 2 (part of Zona Alta, Sant Martí and Diagonal Mar). On the other hand, the Restoration Guild and the Oberta of Barcelona, which represents downtown businesses, welcome the measure. And meanwhile, the Hotel Guild, which has appealed the plan at least twice, is celebrating allowing new businesses to open but warning about the legal complexities of defining what constitutes a “singular” project.
Areas of the Special Urban Plan for Tourist Accommodation of Barcelona (PEUAT). Today it is not allowed to open new tourist beds in zones 1 and 2.
“We had asked about the possibility of opening unique projects that add value, but expressing this in the city plan is the most complicated part to articulate,” agrees the general director of the Hotels Guild, Manel Casals. “We believe that it will be restrictive, but even if the PEUAT opens for a short time, it is positive given that hotels are now frozen in two thirds of the city,” he emphasizes, explaining that he is waiting for a meeting with Junts and hopes please contact the PSC to find out the details. . Among the projects said to have been frozen with the PEUAT were the Palau Moxó, the Palau Vilana-Perlas, the old Sant Sever hospital or projects by Núñez and Navarro on Carrer de Ferran or Via Laietana, the Hyatt that the chain wanted to go to the opening at Torre Agbar or the Four Seasons in the old Deutsche Bank. The Drassanes macro hotel under the Praktik brand also failed with the PEUAT, which received a student residence license with more than 300 beds in 2022.
Be that as it may, the term “singular hotel” still needs to be defined. A few months ago, Mayor Collboni defended the possibility of opening hotels in buildings of historical value that have no other possible use. Municipal sources add that these could be listed buildings, projects with social value (for example with staff for social inclusion) or projects that give up part of the space for public facilities. In the industry, Singular also means a project with outstanding architecture, which improves its environment or represents the implementation of an international brand for the city. In this case, everyone remembers the failed launch of luxury hotels by the Hyatt and Four Seasons chains, which was experienced as a tragedy by hoteliers.
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None of these arguments convince the neighborhood authorities, who remember that the former mayor Xavier Trias made the Ciutat Vella use plan drawn up by the former councilor Itziar González more flexible, which represented a “drain that ended up in court”. The surveyed establishments in the Gòtic, Poblenou and Dreta del Eixample districts agreed on three concepts: “saturated” districts; that they no longer need tourists but “apartments”; and “vice versa” in urban politics. Martí Cusó from the Gòtic neighborhood association recalls that there are “more tourist beds than residents” in the district and that it should not be allowed to “displace more of the population and endanger life in the district”. “Opening the ban violates common sense and defends the interests of a few who find life in the neighborhoods detrimental.”
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In the Dreta del Eixample, which corresponds to the area of the Sagrada Familia, Jaume Artigues recalls that there are 43,000 residents and 29,000 tourist beds in the neighborhood: “You can’t let it grow anymore, we will be against it, it’s outrageous, the saturation of public space.” It is not sustainable.” Artigues believes that legally “it is not feasible for the PEUAT to limit the number of tourist beds in the city based on data”. And in Poblenou, with the double hat of the neighborhood association and board member of the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Barcelona (FAVB), Joan Maria Soler is outraged: “There was a need to consolidate the minimum values achieved.” not: “We had doubts that the “It is very worrying that this extraordinary sensitivity towards influential economic sectors is not reflected in the daily lives of Barcelona’s residents,” regrets Soler .
At the city level, the Assembly of Neighborhoods for Tourism Degrowth (ABDT), Dani Pardo sees the possibility of opening the tap for new hotel beds as “an attack against the city, a flight forward and governing with the lobbies”. “The rejection is absolute, we will do everything we can to stop this nonsense, on the streets and in the courts.” Increasing the number of sites means that the potential for tourist activity and their weight in the city is increasing, making it more dependent becomes. In a city that is already suffering impacts on all levels: displacement of neighbors, pollution, loss of daily commerce, overcrowding of spaces and public transport, and precarious employment.
The director of the Restoration Guild, Roger Pallarols, sees the agreement as “good news, because the policy of obstacles and incitement against the main economic actors that provide jobs, wealth and opportunities was wrong.” And on behalf of Barcelona Oberta, which represents traders in the most central areas, Gabriel Jené is “totally in favor of the measure”. The conversion of “unique buildings into hotels enables the implementation of higher-class facilities that generate demand for great added value, which will contribute to the much-needed economic and commercial reactivation of the center.”
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