2023-08-27 16:00:00
It is no longer what it was. But it is far from being what it was. The microcenter of Buenos Aires shows its more vital face and its daily life gradually recovers its intensity, although it still has not recovered the image of other vertiginous times. The perimeter between Santa Fe, Crucero General Belgrano, Del Libertador, Leandro N. Alem, Paseo Colón, Bernardo de Irigoyen, Belgrano and Carlos Pellegrini avenues enjoys the return of passers-by, the opening of new stores and the visit of each more tourists.
But the glamor of the city is not the same. There are many buildings for rent, premises with their blinds down and companies that, thanks to technology, have not returned to full face-to-face contact with their staff and continue to practice the home office. “After the pandemic, the urban centers were empty. Remote work, which is here to stay, is forcing cities around the world to rethink the use of these spaces, traditionally conceived as shopping, banking, office centers, strictly linked to work”, explains Lucía Bellocchio, director of the Diploma in Smart Cities from the Austral University. Thus, cities like New York, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Miami or San Diego have plans to rethink their centers and give them other uses, with a mixture that combines housing, offices, recreation, greener, for example. Here, in the City of Buenos Aires, a downtown revitalization plan was presented, which corresponds to the “15-minute city” model.
Reconversion. For Martín Aikian, Commercial Director of Aranalfe, in this area there is “a large percentage of vacancy of office buildings whose general condition and their particular layout have become obsolete for the current demand”. Therefore, the broker indicates that a ” redevelopment process would be to bring back to life a neighborhood that had been punished and the pandemic gave it its hardest blow. This project will add a large number of inhabitants to an area that used to be mostly offices, thus generating a demand for services and products that were not offered. This would revitalize the area both socially and commercially, making buildings of great architectural value usable in the most interconnected area of the city, with all means of transportation just a few blocks away.”
One case is that of the emblematic building of the former Torquinst Bank, where a project of luxury residential apartments is being carried out, which includes a roof bar, amenities and a coworking space. “The historic 7,000 square meters of offices were transformed into 180 residential units,” explains Guillermo Gallino, from Bridge Argentina. From his vision, the microcenter should not be among the cheapest neighborhoods in CABA in reference to residential areas, “given its strategic location and its extensive public transport network (bus lines, subways and trains), they would allow its residents to be within less than 15 minutes anywhere in the city”.
Daniel Salaya, president Salaya Romera. is not so optimistic: “except for cases where the pre-existing construction has an outstanding style, architecture and location, where its readaptation to housing and value enhancement will be justified, it will be much more difficult to achieve profitability in the restructuring of buildings with no architectural value from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. Everything will depend on the credit and tax advantages granted to the developer. And -of course- subject everything to the general improvement of the economy and expectations of stability ”, he believes.
“All urban center revitalization projects have certain characteristics in common; They are urban, cultural, social and economic recovery plans for the central regions of the city, whose main objective is to attract new residents, taking advantage of existing buildings and land that have been empty for years or after the pandemic, in regions with infrastructure and abundant cultural heritage”, explains Bellocchio, who also points out the creation of new green areas, the promotion of clean urban mobility and the activation of public space through art as keys in this type of project.
Values. The supply exceeds the demand, so the prices that are handled can vary considerably. Specialists admit that offices are not in demand. “There is no value. On the other hand, there is greater demand for the ‘AAA’ segment, since companies acquire them as investment,” explains Aikian. Prices enter a zone of distortion, with values between US$1,000 and 2,000 per meter and the appearance of demand for block buildings.
If you take a tour of downtown Buenos Aires, the range of prices is wide and varied: around US$1,000 and 2,000 depending on the state of the building, style, value of expenses. “Even for large surfaces, in buildings that have been unoccupied for several years, with no outstanding architectural value, the subway can be found for even less value,” adds Salaya. And he expands: “On the other hand, if we refer to other thriving areas of the line (or borders) of Avenida Libertador in CABA or in Vicente López, the offices have already recovered their pre-pandemic price, approaching the values of 2018”.
Germán Gómez Picasso, from Reporte Inmobiliario, is skeptical about the future of the microcenter: “At the real estate value level, I see more of a trend towards decentralization in large cities driven by daily improvements in work technologies and the implementation of full-time and e-teleworking. hybrid”. The new reality that the “move to the downtown” plan will have to face if it wants to be again.
by Marcelo Alfano
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