silence will be installed in part of the old land of nissan in Free Zone from 1st of July. The Barcelona Free Zone Consortium (CZFB) will rent the land directly to you to speed up your industrial deployment. While the entity led by Peter Navarro finalizes the bases to put up for auction the rest of the surface occupied until now by the Japanese giant, with the idea of publishing the contest and that the interested companies apply from the second half of June. The foreseeable resources of those who do not achieve the tender anticipated by the Government, the Generalitat and the unions threaten to delay the arrival of the rest of the projects, including the electric manufacturer D-Hubuntil the end of the year, according to different sources familiar with the conversations.
The reindustrialization commission of nissan The distribution of the Zona Franca land has closed this Monday. A total of 61,078 square meters, on an area of 517,000 meters, will be assumed by the manufacturer of electric motorcycles Silence. With this there is already a pre-agreement closed and 110 former Nissan workers (out of a defunct workforce of 2,500) will be hired by the Acciona investee. This week a meeting is scheduled between the unions and the company’s management to advance which profiles and at what times will be incorporated into the workforce.
Less defined has been the future of the bulk of the land. There is a political agreement between the Administration, power plants and Nissan, but the bidding documents have not yet been finalized and the firm of RocaJunyent -which represents the Consorci- works against the clock to define it technically. With the idea of publishing it during the second half of June. Then a period of one month will be opened for companies potentially interested in managing said land to present themselves. The idea is that it be an inmologistics (a real estate company specializing in logistics), which then sublets the different plots to third parties and does business with it.
However, with some limitations to ensure a minimum industrial activity. According to sources familiar with the meeting, some 270,000 meters square meters would go to an industrial manufacturer of electric vehicles, whose description would fit the D-Hub. The rest would go to logistics, which would keep a little less than half of the flat square meters that Nissan occupies today, although with the possibility of building in height and gaining greater dimension.
The decontamination of the land, a problem
The legal intricacies have been one of the reasons for the delay in the process, whose contest should be published as agreed by the parties months ago. The point is that the reindustrialization commission had to obtain a specification that reserved, de facto, a space for the brands with which the Administration has been negotiating for months. But since it is a public contest, these candidates could not appear with names and surnames to prevent it from being challenged by potential interested parties. A legally complex puzzle.
Another element that is complicating the process is the dispute between Nissan and the Consorci (owner of the land) over the cost of the land clearing. Well, the entity directed by Peter Navarro it needs the available land for the next tenant and the Japanese are reluctant to assume the entire cost of the operation, according to different sources familiar with the operation. Also the valuation that Nissan makes of its assets, above the market price, according to some sources. Issues such as the transfer of activity licenses and environmental licenses with the administrations, as well as the modification of the municipal use plan required by the operation, are also pending.
Closed the sheet, it will be published in the coming weeks. There are three names that have sounded particularly strong for this so far: the Australian real estate Goodman, the investment fund based in Madrid Merlin Properties and the multinational prolog. Although sources of the negotiation affirm that a dozen companies have expressed their interest in managing the land. At the business level, the ‘candy’ is the square meters that will be reserved for the activity Logistics. This, which aims to build in height and thus multiply its space, comes with much more capital than industrial projects and with the ability to pay larger amounts for rent.
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The problem is that it is a coveted ‘candy’ – it is very close to the Port – and the losers of the contest will presumably challenge the award. Already in the first phases of the reindustrialization process there was a legal struggle between consultants to see who would advise the process -finally the winner KPMG– and this delayed the work for several months.
Pending closing of the agreement with the D-Hub
The bases of the public competition for the manager of the space is a precondition for the D-Hub, formed by Q.E.V. Y B Tech, may be in a position to finish closing its candidacy for a Free Trade Zone. These weeks he has been negotiating with the workers to take over a large part of the workforce that Nissan leaves. There would be 200 hires this year, 600 more next year and it would continue progressively until employing 1,300 people in 2026. The problem is that a substantial part of the capital that the D-Hub needs to undertake the investment depends on the alliances that it can establish with other companies and said agreements will not be able to close them until the public tender is ratified, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.