The Port Vell in
Barcelona’s
traditional fishermen’s neighbourhood is at the centre of plans by the
Mayfair-based Salamanca Group, a private investment fund, to bring the
mega-rich to the heart of the city. Photograph: Hemis/Alamy
The
world’s largest private yacht looms over the old port of Barcelona – its six-deck, 163m profile offering
proof of the love of Russian billionaireRoman Abramovich for a city he will visit again this week
as his football team, Chelsea, tries to secure a place in the Champions League
final.
But
the superyacht, equipped with its own mini-submarine and anti-paparazzi shield,
is a symbol of what neighbours in the traditional fishermen’s neighbourhood of
La Barceloneta fear will bring about the demise of one of the few city
centre barrios to have maintained its traditional
working-class character. Old Barcelona
is under threat. A British private investment fund has taken control of much of
the port area and has asked for an extended licence so that it can turn the
Marina Port Vell into the Mediterranean’s
prime home for superyachts. Sources close to the group said it wanted the
licence to run until 2036.
The
Mayfair-based Salamanca Group intends to make the marina home to yachts up to 180 metres long,
bringing the planet’s growing club of mega-rich to a marina that it says
“dominates the heart of Barcelona”.
But Barceloneta residents say the boats will dwarf the neighbourhood’s famously
narrow, four- or five-storey blocks of flats, where working-class families live
in tiny homes and colourful outdoor washing lines leave the neighbourhood’s
laundry on public display.
“I’ve
lived here all my life and the barrio has a special identity, precisely because
so many working-class people have always lived here,” said 68-year-old
pensioner Antonio García, of the L’Ostia neighbourhood group. “But
this will price us out, turning the port into a place only for the very rich
and changing things for ever.”
Neighbours
fear that a huge wall may go up around part of the port to ensure the privacy
of a handful of wealthy people, creating a fortress-like billionaires’ ghetto
on their doorstep. Protesters have already taken to Barceloneta’s narrow
streets, demanding that speculators be kept away from an area renowned for its
cheap seafood restaurants and proximity to Barcelona’s colourful urban beach.
“This
will make it even more touristy and will see us expelled from our own barrio. We
want it as it has always been, a real community of working-class people with
roots right here,” said García.
Most
of Barcelona’s
fishing fleet disappeared years ago, but the area also had factories and most
people worked in manufacturing. Barceloneta was also a centre of popular
culture, with the city’s own version of the rumba dance emerging here. The
rundown area was partially redeveloped, along with the old port, for the 1992
Olympics, but it survived the gentrification of other parts of the old town. “The
flats here are too small for the wealthier people from around Europe who
have moved into other parts of the city,” explained García. “That has saved us
so far, but now people are buying them up to rent out as holiday apartments.”
Salamanca took over the marina in 2010. The
company is run by founder Martin Bellamy, a former army officer. Last year it
claimed that work on the marina would be completed this autumn. But a city hall
spokeswoman said that only after Salamanca had
received an extended licence from the Spanish government would Barcelona’s authorities be able to review the
project and decide whether to hand out its own permits. “This will have a
landscape impact on Barcelona
and so will have to be studied closely,” said Rosa Díaz. “The city hall
approves in principle of a large investment that might generate jobs and bring
wealth, but it is not going to allow them to do whatever they like. And, of
course, it will consult the neighbours.”
Salamanca’s Barcelona
outpost declined to give figures for the amount of money it wants to invest. Nor
would it respond publicly to the concerns of people in La Barceloneta.
Locals
say some smaller boat owners, including those who live on their boats, are
already being told they must leave the marina. A source close to Salamanca said this was
because repair work had already started. Boat owners were being offered berths
at cut-rate prices in nearby marinas, as well as a place on the waiting list to
get back once work was finished.
Among
possible solutions for multi-millionaires seeking privacy were temporary
screens covering a glass or metal fence around part of the marina.
The
huge project comes as Barcelona
seeks to shed its reputation for cheap, drunken, stag-party tourism, with a
recent law cracking down on street prostitutes in places such as the Las
Ramblas boulevard.
Abramovich is rumoured to be a shareholder in a Barcelona refit and
repair yard, MB92, that lies beside the marina and also plans to expand its
facilities for superyachts.
The
Marina Port Vell is not the only modernisation project in town. Barcelona is also competing with Madrid
for the Eurovegas complex, a vast collection of hotels, casinos and conference
centres that the Las Vegas-based gambling billionaire Sheldon Adelson wants to
build inSpain.
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