BlueTechPort continues to grow with the refurbishing of the Sant Bertran sheds
The preliminary phase of BlueTechPort at Tech Barcelona's Pier01 has been a success, bringing together 17 start-ups and companies that have fully occupied the space in under a year.
The refurbishment of the Sant Bertran sheds will begin with the adaptation of a first warehouse to accommodate the growth of the BlueTechPort. In a second phase currently in the draft stage, the ensemble of buildings will become an innovation and knowledge hub in the Port Vell.
BlueTechPort, the Port of Barcelona's innovation space for companies related to the blue economy, is entering a new phase with the creation of new spaces in the Sant Bertran sheds. The success of the project started by Tech Barcelona at Pier01, located in the Palau de Mar, has accelerated the plans to refurbish the sheds on Sant Bertran wharf, where a new space will be opened to continue hosting innovative projects from September.
The BlueTechPort project, together with the BCN Port Innovation Foundation, was the Port of Barcelona's big bet a year ago to foster innovation in the Barcelona Port Community. The success of the initiative, which in under 12 months has used up all the available space hosting 17 companies related to the Blue Economy, confirms the need to continue moving forward in the project's roadmap, providing it with more space and growth capacity.
“The pilot that we started less than a year ago at Pier01 has demonstrated BlueTechPort's potential to boost innovation and the proliferation of pioneering companies in the Blue Economy sector”, said Emma Cobos, Director of Innovation and Business Strategy at the Port of Barcelona, when presenting the project. “The future BlueTechPort, which will start operating in September in the first warehouse of the Sant Bertran sheds, will have much more capacity to continue functioning as a catalyst for innovation”, he added.
More space for innovation
The new space will arise from adapting the first warehouse, the closest to the city, out of the group of buildings on Sant Bertran wharf. The warehouse, which until recently was mostly occupied by offices and is currently disused, will free up 1,500 square metres in addition to the 200 m2 that the embryonic phase of the BlueTechPort brought into service in the Palau de Mar, with which it will coexist, multiplying the capacity to host companies by eight.
Just as the first phase of BlueTechPort was developed by Tech Barcelona at the facilities they hold at the Palau de Mar, this second phase will be created in collaboration with World Trade Center Barcelona (WTC), the company in which the Port of Barcelona holds a stake, which manages the building of the same name on Barcelona wharf and is already refurbishing the currently available spaces. At the same time, the project marks a turning point in the development of the WTC which, coinciding with the recent change in its management, is expanding its scope of action beyond the main building on Barcelona wharf.
Carles Anglada, General Manager of World Trade Center Barcelona, considers this project to be a key step forward in the new stage of the organisation. “BlueTechPort project has allowed us to expand our scope of action beyond Barcelona wharf and to open our horizons to continue promoting business and innovation”, he explained. “We are no longer a building, we are now one more actor in the innovation ecosystem of the Port Vell”, he added.
The BlueTechPort of the future
This new phase of the BlueTechPort on Sant Bertran wharf will in fact be the preliminary step towards converting these old port sheds into a knowledge and innovation hub related to the Blue Economy. To this end, all six buildings will be completely transformed under a project designed by prestigious firm b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectes, which is also behind some of the most emblematic urban transformations of recent years in Barcelona, such as the new Els Encants market or the future La Sagrera station.
This makeover will free up more than 25,000 square metres for companies, institutions and knowledge centres related to the Blue Economy by 2027. Apart from spaces for companies, start-ups, entities and organisations related to the blue economy, laboratories and an auditorium, the complex will boast a restaurant, a cafeteria and several terraces. Combined with a comprehensive reform of the surrounding area and traffic calming measures around the accesses linking the area with the rest of the city, Sant Bertran will become a new pole of innovation in the Port Vell.
“The future BlueTechPort will be a beacon for the innovation for which the Port of Barcelona aims to remain a leader in all areas of the Blue Economy through sustainability and efficiency”, said Port of Barcelona president Lluís Salvadó. He also underscored the urban transformation resulting from locating the BlueTechPort in the Sant sheds Bertran as “another step in opening up the Port Vell to the public while simultaneously betting on the creation of new public spaces and high-quality companies and workplaces”.
