The Government buys from the RACC the offices on the Diagonal for the future Clinic Campus

BarcelonaOne of the most characteristic images of the access to Barcelona from the Diagonal is living on borrowed time. The RACC offices, with their iconic yellow cube at the top, will have to change location. The reason? That the land on which the building stands is included in the advance of the Master Urban Plan (PDU) of the future Clinic Campus. For this reason, the Generalitat and the company have been negotiating an agreement for months for the RACC to leave its privileged spot at the top of the Diagonal.

Now the signing of this pact is imminent. Both parties, in fact, plan to definitively sign the agreement this very Friday. This Wednesday, the RACC held an extraordinary assembly of delegates in which, as ARA has been able to learn, it was communicated to the club's members that the negotiations with the Government have been successful. The Generalitat will acquire the land and buildings owned by the company in this area of the Diagonal.

Although both the Generalitat and the RACC have refused to provide details on the cost of the operation until it is made public this Friday, sources familiar with the agreement have explained to ARA that the purchase of the land will be closed for a figure that will range between 70 and 80 million euros. It will be the second agreement of this type to be closed around the future Clinical Campus, after the Generalitat already bought its land in the area from the University of Barcelona (UB) for 135.25 million euros.

Two highly coveted pieces

In the case of the RACC, it involves two highly coveted urban plots within the grounds of the future Clínic Campus on the Diagonal, which are located within the city of Barcelona. On one hand, there is the RACC headquarters—the building on the corner of Avinguda Diagonal and Carrer Albert Bastardas—which was inaugurated thirty years ago, in 1996. On the other, the building that was inaugurated in 2003 on the same Carrer Albert Bastardas, just below the headquarters, which had become too small given the growth of the organization, which this year has celebrated 120 years of history.

The PDU progress report, which is currently in the public exhibition period with information sessions planned in the three affected municipalities—Barcelona, l'Hospitalet de Llobregat, and Esplugues de Llobregat—envisages that in the area where the RACC offices are now located—to the north of the Campus—there will be healthcare and teaching facilities, in addition to one of the green corridors that characterize the project. The 1,125 apartments planned in the area—half of which are protected—are distributed in the eastern zone, between Barcelona and, above all, l'Hospitalet.

The Catalan executive considers the property transaction positive because it "signifies a new step forward" for the development of the future Clínic Campus, a "strategic project that will transform the southern entrance of the city of Barcelona into an international benchmark in healthcare, research, and training." Sources from the Department of Economy also praise the "commitment" of the RACC to a key project for the country.

For its part, the RACC claims to be "satisfied" with the agreement despite admitting that leaving its central headquarters on Avinguda Diagonal was not an option sought by the organization. However, the same sources remark that "due to its commitment to the country and the city" they had to contribute to the project of the future Clínic Campus, which they emphasize is "very important."

Sources familiar with the agreement explain to ARA, however, that the move will not be imminent. The forecast is that the RACC will be able to continue using the current offices—at least those in the main building—until the year 2030. It will be from then on that the demolition of this building—and the adjacent gas station—will begin and the landscape of this part of the Diagonal will change.

No new destination for now

Regarding this schedule, sources from the RACC limit themselves to saying that they are just beginning to analyze and evaluate the next location of their offices, without speaking of possible destinations. A few months ago, the idea circulated among the company's employees that the offices could move to the DFactory complex of the Consorci de la Zona Franca, but internally the company denied this possibility.