Construction begins on the Port of Barcelona's blue economy innovation complex

BarcelonaNewspapers, including Thursday's edition of ARA, and coins filled the urn used to lay the foundation stone for the future blue economy innovation complex at the Port of Barcelona. This marked the start of construction on the Blue Tech Port, which will be located in the former warehouses. –port warehouses– of the Sant Bertran dock, next to the Ronda Litoral ring road and just beyond the Trasmed boarding terminal.

A new chapter for a complex built in the 1960s, which had fallen into disuse and will now serve to housestart-ups,scale-upsaccelerators, institutions, and universities linked to all the economic opportunities the sea can offer. "The Blue Tech Port is more than a building: it's the gateway to an open laboratory," declared the president of the Port of Barcelona, ​​José Alberto Carbonell, accompanied by the president of State Ports, Gustavo Santana; the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque; and the mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni.

The works, awarded In Compsa and Vopi 4, the works will be extended until 2028. The works will consist of a comprehensive renovation of the warehouses of the old sheds, prepared by the b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos studio, the same Barcelona firm that has signed the Mercat dels Encants and that is also working on the future. the new pavilion of the Hospitalet de Llobregat Fair

With an investment of 60 million euros, a 25,000 square meter space will be created where up to 2,500 workers can work. The future hub It will be managed by World Trade Center Barcelona (WTCB), the company that operates the business center of the same name and is 76% owned by the Port Authority of Barcelona (APB), while the remainder is held by the construction company FCC.

First tenants

Despite the start of construction, the Blue Tech Port project has been in development for years. Initially, space was allocated in Pier 01, a pioneering building dedicated to hosting startups and created by Tech Barcelona, a model that has since been replicated in other parts of the city. Later, despite knowing that a complete renovation of the warehouses was necessary, operations began in the same building, and one of the Sant Bertran warehouses was made available at the end of last year. Currently, around twenty companies are part of the project.hubThe US consulting firm Braid Theory, the startups Ocean Ecostructures and Bloom Fish, and the BCN Nautical Cluster are some examples of these first tenants. All of them have relocated until the construction at the WTC is complete, with direct access to the dock to test prototypes in the water, such as underwater drones.