The center of Barcelona launches an SOS for its business model
The last emblematic establishment to fall has been New-Phonothe temple for music lovers on Ample street dating from 1906 (with previous history on Ferran street), where these fantastic days are liquidated musical instruments before lowering the blind. In the absence of knowing its replacement, the anguish of the merchant associations of Ciutat Vella, who observe the non-stop loss of business assets more deeply rooted, but also they tremble at each pfirmaopotential relay. And it is that the stores with identity — especially fragile because their (not massive) sales are incompatible with the rentals of the area and the effects of the health crisis–, are giving way above all to the trade of articles or services focused above all on the mass tourismwithout providing any added value to the city center.
The case of New-Phono, which after four generations of the Massó family at the helm, a worthy successor reappeared in 2019 with the company Tico Música, so that it maintained the type of activity and the name, is paradigmatic. The confinement took them almost recently installed in the area, where they made the leap to retail. But so much closure and drop in public, together with the dizzying internet competitionThey have wreaked havoc on them. Its rent has not reached nor was it abusive, although the pandemic times reduction has ended, without sales occurring at par, company sources tell this newspaper.
Currently, the store was made up of three adjoining premises under the same name. The catalog of the architectural, historical-artistic and landscape heritage of the emblematic establishments of Barcelona (2016) promoted by the city council, places it in the E2 category, due to its interest (facade elements and some modernist exhibitors), and also alludes to the importance of the activity: from the sale of gramophones a century ago, to classical music, reaching a ‘ boom’ in the ’60s, when the success of rock (and the Beatles) skyrocketed demand for electric guitars and amplifiers. And from there to date, between albums and instruments.
“The broad street has undergone many changes, there is little awareness of the neighborhood, many temporary foreign residents and many emblematic have closed, “adds the same source. It does not help that one of its current spaces with the most affluence is the Hash Museum (where marijuana and hashish are sold ). But the case is repeated over and over again. As this newspaper reported a few weeks ago, Comtal Street (which leads to Portal de l’Àngel) is a resounding case. The move of the Casa del Bacallà (among other , moved to Calle de las Moles) and the closure of the Agricolia herbalist, have given way these days to a manicure business and another grocery store, in a road now plagued with shops such as memory or low profile, in the hands of foreign entrepreneurs.
law and trap
The regulation prohibits the opening of more establishments of regardsbut once the law was made, they cheated: there are many businessmen who assemble gifts or allegedly handicrafts, or who, under the heading of commerce textiles (which limits souvenir-type pieces to 20%) include stuffed t-shirts to excessively finish off those printed by panot or other icons of Barcelona. “A Barça shirt is a souvenir, but one from Espanyol can be considered as not,” ironically a seller.
“It cannot be that measures are not taken to stop the loss of entrenched stores and that these are replaced by seasonal, repetitive and low-quality business models, which do not serve the neighborhood or the city,” he reflects. Teresa Llordés, president of the Barna Centre, the network that integrates the Gòtic trade. “The center is becoming a non-place (like a cloned destination), with a neighborhood and commercial fabric punished to go to other neighborhoods,” she adds. Another recent case, La casa de les Sabatilles, closed a few days ago in its historic enclave in Baixa de la Llibreteria after a long legal battle with the property, will soon be the star of its little miracle, having reached a agreement to start a new stage on Calle de Freneria, 3. “Finding a new place has been an extraordinary carom,” confesses its owner, Joan Carles Iglesias, hopefully. The architect Alberto Mejías, forerunner of the defense and protection of the emblematic, is behind the advice and pushes many survivors.
The Ramblas, which this year finally faces its long-awaited urban reform, illustrates and magnifies the risk of each change and the deficiencies of the regulations. After the Musical Emporium store was replaced by a currency exchange window, maintaining the aesthetics and label, but with that commercial perversion, everything seems possible. It actually spurred the need to also protects activities (as intangible heritage, beyond the physical) of the emblematic ones, in an initiative promoted by the PSC from the city council and the Government, but which has not yet materialized on the street.
With dozens of stores closed even after the worst of the pandemic, there was uncertainty about the future of the Rambla and its long-awaited commercial improvement. And changes to the city’s busiest tourist hub are getting away with one of lime and one of sand. Among the establishments with the objective of a relay that raises the bar, there are two from the field of hospitality. The first was the case of the old Vienna, restored with elegance and care as Bar&Art, conserving elements of the façade, furniture, screen-printed windows with floral motifs, ceilings and even the counter, despite being modified after its first commercial life (the old Casa Mumbrú, a delicatessen that housed it in the 19th century). Offering “quality tapas, wines and good cocktails” is a challenge in that territory. Its beauty, in fact, seems to impose on many visitors who choose the terraces and its liter beers at stratospheric prices.
Also about to take off is what was the historic brewery bavarianext to Canaletes, in full phase of renovation by the hand of the boutique hotel Yurbban Ramblawhich has been occupying for a few months a listed building 1889, after a short-lived opening due to the coronavirus crisis. Hotel sources highlight its “local soul” and its challenge to amplify indigenous culture, through the work of Barcelona artists and studios, which permeate both common spaces and rooms. With incredible acoustic insulation, the establishment located in the heart of the city is an oasis of silence, finished off by panoramic views of the Rambla from its terrace. The project of its new gastronomic space, brewery and quality restaurant, is seen by association Friends of the Rambla as another green Sprout, given the degradation that had been changing the Bavaria for years.
uncertain future
But other spare parts in the vial, more focused on intensive exploitation with bland restoration and even excessive terraces that do not comply with the regulations have not had a landing applauded by the employers. Among the neighbors of the environment also alarms the growing commercial offer linked to sex. There are already four establishments behind the Barcelona Erotic Museum store and, just a few days ago, No Taboo (formerly a clothing store), at the entrance of which a blackboard announces “very interesting excursions in the sex shop” for people over 18 years of age . The city council has not clarified in what administrative and licensing situation the premises are.
There is little knowledge and follow-up in the district of old city of what happens after each important closure, be it an emblematic or a prominent location. The European regulation on free trade is sometimes tamed with territorial use plans, restrictive with the hotel industry and some activities (call shops, souvenirs, tasting shops…) but without a municipal policy that really supports and promotes quality businesses , autochthonous or with a differential identity with respect to the center of other large cities. “There is no support for their survival when they are threatened,” he laments. Gabriel Jené, president of the Barcelona Oberta employer association than even to the most central axes.
There were also misgivings about the future of the space occupied by the bicentennial shirt shop Xancó, after two years of closure, given that its new owner operates both craft businesses and an erotic shop on Escudellers street. Finally, after the works they carry out (as this newspaper reported) it will go to the sale of ceramics (Art Escudellers), focused above all on the visitor.
Act first in the public space
The president of the merchants of the Rambla, Fermín Villar, points out that the approach of a part of the private initiative is a consequence of the lack of municipal intervention in the streets. “You have to recover the public space before the private one.” And he alludes to the once again skyrocketing sale of cans of beer and cannabis in the middle of the street as soon as night falls. “The administration is missing,” he accuses. “The illegalities lower the commercial average of the market”, with a related commercial offer, he maintains.
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Also decisive is the unstoppable increase in internet sales and the changes in strategy of the big market brands, with fewer points of sale. A clear example is the street of Portaferrissawith a fortnight closures at present and an uncertain panorama due to the withdrawal of many firms and franchises.
Llordés adds that the problem affects above all the Gothic, “but it must be understood that we are facing a city problem”. And he underlines it “not only because the commercial degradation It impacts all of Barcelona”, but because it also has repercussions on “speculation regarding the rental market, the costs of public services or the social conflict derived from the lack of cohesion”. This entity calls for urgent measures: “It is a problem that cannot continue to be denied and against which action is needed.