The proposal, advised by consultancy firm Ejecución del Planeamiento, places this tower in the space the Cottolengo shelter is currently occupying. The shelter will move to a new building on the corner of Paseo de Antonio Machado and Calle Góngora, according to an agreement that the developer has already reached with the Bishopric. The new Cottolengo will occupy a plot of 2,800 square metres, on which the shelter will have 2,500 square metres of built space and a basement of 500 square metres for a minimum of 15 vehicles.
Sierra Blanca also highlights that the tower only occupies 13 per cent of the 295 metres of the sector's facade on the Antonio Machado promenade, avoiding the formation of an architectural screen, which could lead to a negative report, as has happened in other cases.
The project keeps the Luis de Góngora public school in the same location but proposes the demolition of the municipal hostel and other buildings owned by the city council. In exchange, with the new development, which creates a large 21,055-square-metre block of interior facilities, the city council would have two plots of land "for uses it deems necessary and convenient for the area".
The proposal also includes the construction of two ground floor buildings plus nine for 40 social housing units (VPOs) each, with a cultural space on the ground floors. The aim is to rehouse the families who live in the houses that still remain in the area as heirs to the shantytown past of this area.
The football pitch next to the school would be dismantled to create an underground car park with spaces for public and private use. A new north-south-facing football pitch would be built on this car park.
Following Urbanismo's requirements, Sierra Blanca's plan keeps the port railway at surface level but designs the spaces to allow for future underground placement. A wide north-south boulevard would be laid out over this underground route.
Competition open to more companies
Once the city council selects the technical proposal, the urban planning department will move on to another competition to select the financial proposal. This competition will be open not only to Sierra Blanca, but also to other interested companies.
The new call for proposals, which will take place in the coming weeks and months, will determine the final award of the urban development contract for El Bulto.
In this second phase of the process, the urban planning department will place particular emphasis on factors such as greater availability of land in the area, whether through ownership or agreements reached with the current landowners, the higher value of the land once developed, lower development costs and shorter timeframes for the completion of the works, amongst other aspects.
In this second stage, the urban planning department's tender committee will once again rank the bids from highest to lowest score and select the developer, with whom the city council must sign a planning agreement setting out their obligations and rights regarding the development of the area.
Among the obligations is the requirement to meet certain deadlines for the implementation of the project. The developer is required to submit the project's environmental report and progress update within three months of the signing of the agreement. The area's development plan must be submitted three months after the regional government's environmental approval and the development project must be submitted six months after the initial approval of that plan.
Similarly, the urban planning department has set a series of deadlines for the contracting and commencement of the development works in the area. Should the selected company fail to meet its commitments, there will be a series of financial penalties, which, in the worst-case scenario, could lead to the withdrawal of the developer's status as an agent.
