The Police Headquarters, which never became a Police Headquarters, on Via Ugo Bassi in Rimini will be demolished this summer. From its “ashes”, as part of a program agreement between the Municipality and the Asi company that owns the property, a 1,500 square meter supermarket will arise, as well as approximately 3,500 square meters of warehouses, and a complex of 36 public housing units. The entire sector will be the subject of a redevelopment in two parallel phases, including residential, shops, “enormous” green area, parking and new roads. After a discussion that started in 2023, including a halt to negotiations, announcements of appeals and feverish acceleration in the last month, it arrives in commission this morning the draft agreement between Palazzo Garampi and Ariminum real estate company on the former police headquarters, a property symbol of decay in the city, built based on a 1999 project by the Dama company but never used due to the failure to reach an agreement on the lease. Which are followed, reconstructs the councilor for urban planning Roberta Frisoni, corporate bankruptcy, warnings, disputes, “attempts to mend the wound” such as the Security Citadel, which will instead be built in the former Giulio Cesare barracks, up to the auction and award to Asi. There were “several doubts” regarding the first project presented by the company, confirms Frisoni, including the excessive size of the commercial surface, the smaller percentage of greenery and the student housing. Furthermore, the administration plans to build 36 public housing units in the area.
The discussion led to “an excellent agreement”, underlines Frisoni, synergising the intervention with the redevelopment of the Romeo Neri stadium and with the project on the Giulio Cesare barracks. Once the Police Headquarters has been demolished, it will take three months and the materials will be crushed on site and reused, the supermarket of approximately 4,900 square meters will be built compared to the initial forecast of 6,000, “well defined in its characteristics so as to protect against possible future scenarios”, and the Erp-Ers housing, therefore moved from the position behind the stadium curve and with redesign costs of 526,000 euros to be paid by Asi. In parallel, the second phase of the project will also continue with the construction of residential lots to the north of the area for approximately 8,300 square meters, greenery, parking and roads. The public interest is “obvious” and the solution “quick, Frisoni points out, also to avoid losing the funding of over five million euros for social housing, which must be built by the end of 2026. Hence the discussion with Asi to find the best location. After the demolition has started, the building permit in derogation for the supermarket and the project for the housing will arrive in the City Council, with a significant share of greenery, also for the construction of the lamination basin, and parking lots. Overall, the public areas will be 31,000 square meters, compared to the current 13,000, of which 9,000 are linked to the Erp-Ers and 22,000 of roads, parking lots and greenery.
“A victory for the city”
It is “a victory for the city and demolition will begin very shortly”, concludes Frisoni claiming that “it is not the proposed agreement of Asi” and that it was “the administration’s will” to move the public housing”. Carlo Rufo Spina of Fratelli d’Italia thinks the opposite, applauding Asi and the opposition and rejecting the various administrations that have succeeded one another in a quarter of a century. “The private sector resolved the situation in a perfect way and the opposition’s proposal on the relocation of public housing was implemented.” So, he asks himself, “what’s the point of keeping this majority?”. In the new Esselunga supermarket, he reveals the logo, “there will be underground parking, and accommodation and shops in the residential part they serve”, putting an end to “a 25-year mess”. For the administration, however, he concludes, “only demerits, it hindered the project until the end so as not to give competitors to Conad and Coop”. Party colleague Gioenzo Renzi asks for clarification on the demolition, it is in fact an area of 24,000 square metres, 190,000 cubic meters and 50-60,000 tonnes of materials; on parking, also in relation to the stadium, and on accessibility to the area. While Gloria Lisi of the group of the same name recalls in her ten years as deputy mayor “the weight on her shoulders” for that building: “The demolition and reuse of the resulting material is a victory for the city”, so “today my heart is more serene ”, he concludes by asking for an account of how much the Municipality had to spend for the degradation of that place, including sanitisation, flooding and cleaning.
