Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni announced on Friday that the Ajuntament, Barcelona City Council, will create a municipal fund to buy commercial premises judged strategic for neighbourhood life. The stated aim is to keep businesses operating where they anchor a shopping area or provide a service residents need.
For shopkeepers, the criteria outlined so far focus on a business's role in its local commercial area and the necessity of its service. Collboni did not announce a timetable, funding total or an application route for premises to be considered.
“We believe it is especially important to preserve them, as they are part of a city's history,” Collboni said.
He announced the measure at the opening of the European Forum of Cities and Local Commerce at the Palau de Pedralbes, in Barcelona.
Fund would target businesses with a neighbourhood role
Collboni said the proposed purchases would focus on premises occupied by businesses that meet one of two stated tests:
- they play an important part in a local commercial area; or
- they guarantee a service considered necessary for local residents.
The announcement follows a reported decline in some traditional trades in Barcelona. One in four haberdasheries, hardware shops and fishmongers has closed over the past decade, according to the figures cited at the forum.
Generalitat working group on property rights
Miquel Sàmper, Catalonia's Minister of Business and Labour, said the Generalitat, Catalonia's regional government, is setting up a working group with Catalan councils. It is intended to provide public authorities with a legal framework to use rights of first refusal and redemption, which can allow an authority to take priority in buying a property of general interest or to replace a buyer after a sale under legally defined conditions.
The City Council has not yet set out which premises may be selected, how businesses can put sites forward, or when the fund will begin making purchases.
Reported by cope.es.
