30 million euros for investments. «Work will begin within the year»

Finally in October metro line 1 will arrive at Business center and for this reason the Municipality led by the mayor Gaetano Manfredi has given a very strong acceleration to the relaunch of the Citadel of skyscrapers.

With the works that could start already by the end of the year and it is a commitment of around 30 million with the very open option of being able to concession some areas to private individuals. «With the opening of the Line 1 metro station designed by the architect Benedetta Miralles Tagliabue – transpires from the Town Hall – a process of urban regeneration of the business center has been started”. The Municipality – this is the reflection being made around Manfredi – «intends to seize this opportunity to start the redevelopment of an entire urban area with repercussions from a social and economic point of view».

The management center today it is an island raised above the surrounding context and the project aims to mend this urban and therefore social fracture. With the eastern variant to the Prg Palazzo San Giacomo has already cleared the uses of skyscrapers, today it is possible install any function in skyscrapers: from the tertiary sector to food, through sport and free time, art and culture up to coworking, nothing is precluded, in this way thousands of covered square meters have been cleared.

Furthermore the business center is included in the “Porta est” project as a hub for those arriving from the central station and also from the airport, given that line 1 will also arrive in Capodichino within two years. The subways it is the engine that triggered investments again, it is no coincidence that the two former Enel towers in Piazzale Salerno were purchased by two consortia made up only of private individuals.

The business center is permanently inhabited by approximately 5000 people to these are added at least 15 thousand who work there every day. Opening the site to the city is the primary objective. How? By increasing the level of quality of life of the “inhabitants” «through the valorization of urban space and by trying to capture new interests and stakeholders who make this public space attractive and competitive, safe and manned». The transformation of the enormous spaces available will be “accompanied by specific signs in various colors to improve the orientation and sense of safety of users both in the underground parking spaces and on public pedestrian routes”. The green areas – abandoned to neglect and separated from each other – which divide the spaces of the large central avenue, the so-called “plate”, will be refunctionalized by inserting specific play areas, sports areas and relaxation areas, characterizing the urban public space which today appears to be rather anonymous and not very functional”.

In particular, the intervention will focus «on valorization of the stairs that from the external border driveways and related sidewalks lead to the upper public pedestrian axes, and of the vertical connections to the underground car parks; the enhancement of the main access points present on the pedestrian axes through restyling works and the insertion of shelters and/or covers for the escalators; the refunctionalization of some pedestrian areas through the differentiation of the flooring and the introduction of diversified street furniture”. It’s still: «The strengthening of the lighting system and the integration of the green system with the presence of spaces that can be used and enjoyed by the user.”

The Municipality is already tackling the management issue to possibly lighten the public costs of the project. The substance is that the Municipality is oriented towards granting concessions to parts of the business centre. Further investigations are underway in this regard because a business association has already knocked on the door of the Town Hall with a green project.

Not the only one and not the “only stakeholders” who have expressed the desire to take action on the Citadel of skyscrapers. The acceleration is there and the metro is about to arrive, now it’s up to the Municipality which has been working on the business center for almost two years.

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