The countdown to the closure of the El Corte Inglés department store in Portal del Àngel began on October 17, when the ‘joint venture’ formed by the real estate manager Redevco and an investment fund reported that they had closed the purchase of the property that houses them, the historic Can Jorba building, open to the public under that brand on October 25, 1926that is to say that this Tuesday exactly 96 years of it have been fulfilled.
The buyers will invest 200 million euros in the operation, between the purchase and the reform of the property, which will probably be converted into offices, beyond the fact that there are shops on the ground floor.
The sale is the end of the journey for the building, for the street, one of the most important from the commercial point of view in Barcelona, for the Gòtic and for Ciutat Vella, a district that thus bids farewell to its last department stores, after having had some very representative in the last century.
the closure
On Tuesday, customers roamed the six floors and basement, currently focused on sporting goods and some technology. It is not yet known precisely when the department stores will close their doors, and it is a decision that corresponds to the buyer, but everything indicates that it will happen in the coming months.
The building located in Portal de l’Àngel with Santa Anna has served as the headquarters for three department stores. Can Jorba inaugurated it and occupied it from 1926 to 1963. What would be its impact on the city that this denomination was not lost. It also helped that in the second stage, from 1963, when it was acquired by Prized Galleriesthe new owner company opted for the name Jorba Preciados.
The third stage is more recent. Once Galerías Preciados suspended payments and was defeated by its historical competitor, El Corte Inglés, it became the owner of the building. It was in 1995. And that last stage, which began with the reopening in 1998, has lasted 24 years.
The Century, the pioneers
The presence of department stores began in Ciutat Vella in 1881, when the first ones in Spain opened, the department stores The century, located at number 5 of the Rambla. His time at that venue ended abruptly in 1932, when the building it burned on Christmas day that year. In 1933, El Siglo bought the Can Damians building, at Pelai, 54, where it reopened in 1934. In 1979 it suffered another fire, not as serious as the previous one.
In 1984, El Siglo closed for good, five years after avoiding that second fire. By then the company was in the hands of a controversial businessman Julio Muñoz Ramonet, one of those who gathered the greatest fortune under the umbrella of Francoism.
Fire and department stores
In 1981, Muñoz Ramonet was also the owner of Almacenes The Eagle, originally owned by Pere Bosch and opened in 1925 on the corner of Pelai and Plaça de la Universitat. The building burned down on June 6, 1981, and there was almost more suspicion that the fire was arson than flames.
In Pelai, 22, 24 and 26 were installed in 1917 the German Warehouseswhich from 1940 gave way to the Capitol Warehouses. They closed at the beginning of the 80s of the last century.
To the list of department stores in the historic center of the city we must add the Sepuinstalled at number 120 of the Rambla from 1934 to 2002, and The cheapwhich was on Carrer de Tamarit with Carrer Ronda de San Antoni, on the border of Ciutat Vella, until the 1950s, when it gave way to the Arias Warehouses.
As has been seen, fire and department stores often went hand in hand. It should be noted that El Barato belonged to Muñoz Ramonet’s uncle and that the premises also went down in flames years later when it was already Almacenes Arias. It also happened in 1981, in March. Four people died and it was assumed that the fire was arson.
The mall effect
“Department stores in the style of El Corte Inglés and before El Siglo or El Águila began to die when they opened large commercial areas at the entrances of the city & rdquor ;, affirms the president of Barnacentre, Theresa Llordes.
He cites examples such as Glòries and La Maquinista, where “customers are offered restaurants, cinemas, entertainment and parking”. Llordes underlines that in any case El Corte Inglés in Plaza de Catalunya is very close: “Any place that closes is a loss, but I am optimistic, I am convinced that what will open will be of quality”.
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“I think this will not affect the small businesses in the Gòtic, despite the fact that the Portal de l’Àngel is the artery that leads into the neighborhood. That has suffered the effects of the pandemic like no other area. But we small merchants are like snakes: one day we are crouched and the next day we get up as if we were a cobra that wants to eat the world & rdquor ;.
a sports shop
Sources from El Corte Inglés maintain that in reality in Portal de l’Àngel they do not exactly have a department store but a sports store with 80% plus some electronics and restaurants. And they add that for this reason the sale does not affect “a strategic asset & rdquor; as they do consider their headquarters in the Plaza de Catalunya. “One of the great shops in Ciutat Vella is lost & rdquor ;, qualify the same sources.