*3.4. The Nuevo Mahou-Calderón Project*

Prior to presenting the result of examining the project, it seems advisable to make a brief introduction of the territorial context in which this operation in planned, to the south of Madrid's central area, distant from the Castellana thoroughfare business district, unlike the two foregoing projects. This space began as an industrial quarter in the second half of the 19th century, consisting of factories, services to the city and workers' homes, and was conditioned by the earlier existence of the rail ring infrastructure, crossing the district from east to west. In the mid-1990s, in the early inner-city de-industrialisation period, the first factories were dismantled as a consequence of the developmental PGOU of 1963. These industrial voids were replaced with residential complexes that gradually raised the real estate value of the district generating expectations of lucrative activities. The PGOU of 1985, which advocated for the recovery of the city rather than its growth, attempted to ban speculative manoeuvres associated with industrial abandonment. However, the economic recovery at the end of that decade caused the urban market to prevail in this increasingly central space.

Two urban planning operations were promoted that hastened the transformation of the city sector south of the central area. The first of these, the *Pasillo Verde Ferroviario* (green railway corridor) was designed in 1987 by a consortium comprising Renfe and the socialist City Council. The purpose was to eliminate the rail ring line and to improve the district's environmental quality. The undertaking envisaged sinking the 8 km rail line and adapting it to passenger traffic, covering it with a green surface-level pedestrian path and leisure spaces and facilities. To pay for these works, the remaining railway grounds were re-classified for tertiary uses and put up for sale. However, the original plan underwent modifications in 1992 by the conservative municipal government taking up office, considerably increasing its residential development potential and reducing community and rail facilities [39]. The second operation *Madrid Río* was developed by the City Council in 2006. This intervention included reforming and sinking the M-30 urban ring road that follows the course of the River Manzanares on the south-west, delimiting the southern border of the central area. The operation aimed to improve the environmental quality of peripheral districts and boost their connectivity, besides creating a new public space with green zones, with room for leisure and sports facilities for all residents and citizens of the metropolitan area [40]. The works ended in 2012, although a section remains unfinished in the proximity of the Mahou-Calderón location.

In the next section, we present the results of the Nuevo Mahou Calderón project, currently in construction. This covers a surface area of 19.3 ha originally occupied by the Vicente Calderón football stadium, property of the Atlético de Madrid football club and the Mahou brewery. Both were erected in the early 1960s on empty plots near the River Manzanares. Throughout the urban development process, which began in 2009 and ended

in 2017, two successive projects were tabled, ascribed to the conservative and progressive municipal governments of before and after 2015.

Among the circumstances surrounding the operation, it cannot be overlooked that it was related throughout to the former track and field stadium known as La Peineta, where the Wanda Metropolitano stands today. La Peineta stadium was built in 1994 by the socialist regional government for its unsuccessful candidacy to host the 1997 World Athletics Championships. The argument associating it with the transformation of the Mahou-Calderón site began with the regional government's assignment of La Peineta to the City Council and with the agreement signed in 2008 by the City Council and the Football Club for the latter to purchase La Peineta and build a new stadium to replace it in anticipation of the 2012 Olympic candidacy.

The urban development for this operation issued by the conservative government and entitled *Mahou-Vicente Calderón* was promoted by the owners of this stretch of land, namely the football club and the brewery. The club thereupon demanded the same treatment received by the Real Madrid football club for its transfer from Castellana to Valdebebas. This required exceptional modifications to the PGOU to re-qualify as residential the industrial and sports land granting it a gross floor space ratio of 1.49 m2/m2. Neighbourhood associations and citizen groups denounced the high-rise buildings resulting from the excessive buildable floor space granted. The TSJM annulled the modification on the grounds of its infringement of the regulations set forth in the 2007 regional land-use law (Ley Regional del Suelo), which prohibits building more than four storeys [41]. The owners appealed this decision before the Supreme Court and, before a ruling was passed down, the Partial Plan was approved defining the urban planning rules for the area, and in 2014, the promoters designed a project in which the gross floor-space ratio was reduced to 1.0 m2/m2 but the typology of residential buildings for 2000 dwellings was maintained as towers and blocks.

The Rubio & Álvarez-Sala studio of architects designed the project including 36-floor skyscrapers, 20-storey buildings and 8-floor residential blocks (Figure 4). The City Council publicised the timelines and the quality of the operation stressing its economic, social and environmental profitability, and for its contribution to creating a monumental, iconic residential area that would become a reference in Madrid, and named it *La Nueva Puerta del Sur*. Political parties in the opposition and the Contra el Plan Mahou-Calderón platform demanded its withdrawal, as it was approved without a legal settlement in the courts, and staged demonstrations to express their rejection: "No to the Mahou-Calderón operation. No to this policy of speculation!" and "This is no game; Arganzuela is not Manhattan!"

**Figure 4.** Recreation of the *Mahou-Vicente Calderón* project (2014) [42]. Copyright 2014 Laura Sánchez Carrasco and Rubio Arquitectura.

However, the sale of the municipal La Peineta stadium, necessary for relocating the Atlético football club still remained unresolved. Therefore, the PGOU was modified and the land re-classified for private sports uses. This move was denounced before the TSJM by the Señales de Humo association, composed of Atlético football team followers who were

critical of the club's management. Before the legal resolution was handed down, La Peineta was demolished in 2011, and the new Wanda Metropolitano stadium was completed in 2019. Although the court ruling was issued in 2018, declaring null and void the modification to the PGOU for giving priority to private interests over the general interest, the promoters appealed before the Supreme Court, which finally ruled in favour of the modification, finding it in keeping with legal provisions, thus affording legal certainty to the purchase of La Peineta and to the new stadium.

The arrival of the progressive platform Ahora Madrid in 2015 to the municipal government marked a new stage in the development of the Mahou-Calderón operation, as all major urban transformation projects pending in the city for re-assessment were halted. The Mahou-Calderón operation was taken back to the drawing-board for re-assessment and negotiation with all urban players, including citizens' groups, to design a new project on a scale compatible with the surroundings and with a smaller number of housing units. The progressive municipal council was supported by the rulings of the courts declaring null and void the modification to the PGOU and the Partial Plan. The City Council, however, was faced with a legacy of obstacles that would condition to a large extent its urban planning proposal. It was unable to evade the commitments made in the agreement signed in 2008 to approve the operation as soon as possible, as otherwise the club would be entitled to a multimillion-euro indemnity. It also had to accept that the club should receive sufficient capital gains to compensate for the expenses of the Wanda Metropolitano stadium [43].

The *Nuevo Mahou-Calderón* project was drafted in record time. The landowners accepted the design with no skyscrapers and a smaller housing allowance. This gave rise to the process for a further modification to the PGOU and a new Partial Plan. The City Council conducted a restricted call for bids from urban planning professionals to address a new distribution of the area that was awarded to the architects Enrique Bardají y Asociados S.L. This new proposal was presented at the negotiation table made up of citizens' groups, professional associations of architects and engineers, and political parties with municipal representation. The new urban players criticised the high floor-space ratio agreed between the owners and the council, as this undermined the effectiveness and adequacy of the participative process. Nevertheless, they acknowledged the improvements made and proposed, among other measures, spreading the buildable space to balance the height of buildings, enhancing aesthetic aspects and ensuring better sunlight exposure conditions [44,45]. These demands where included in the report given final approval by the regional government [46] and in the applicable urban regulations (Figure 5).

**Figure 5.** Buildings recreated in the *Nuevo Mahou-Calderón* proposal (2017) [47]. Copyright 2017 E.BARDAJI Y ASOCIADOS/ARQUITECTOS.

The project proposed by the City Council contained significant differences from the project put forward by the promoters in 2014: the surface area was 5.2% smaller; building heights where limited to dimensions similar to those in the surrounding areas with the exception of a number of architectural landmarks; the gross floor-space ratio was reduced to 0.76 m2/m2; the commercial floor space dropped by 16%; non-subsidised housing was reduced by 34.7%, and 11.2% would be under a protection regime; the extension dedicated to community facilities was enlarged by 34.7% and green zones by 41.1%. The responsibility to provide a solution for the M-30 ring road was transferred from private developers to the City Council (Table 1).


**Table 1.** Principal urbanism parameters in the projects of 2014 and 2017 (source: the author from [48]).

In 2019, the executive phase of the project commenced with the approval of land reparcelling. Two plots correspond to the City Council by virtue of compulsory assignments, another four are destined to community facilities and green zones and the remaining six were put up for sale by the landowners. Real estate operations, investment funds and REITs were keen to acquire plots from one of the few pools of land for sale within the central area, a rare opportunity for investors. The plots were acquired by: the real estate management and promotion firm Ibosa; the American GreenOak investment fund; the Spanish real estate corporation Pryconsa; Vivenio, the Dutch APG fund's REIT and Renta Corporación; and the investment fund Azora in association with the building company CBRE GIP.

The new owners of the plots set to marketing near future real estate products without delay. Sales promotions targeted up-market buyers and incorporated an abundance of private facilities. Real estate experts claim that offering quality and high-class common spaces has become equal in importance to location, and the Mahou-Calderón development meets both of these conditions. The average price of the homes advertised before the Covid-19 pandemic was close to 5000 euros/m2, similar to the most sought-after central districts (Salamanca, Chamberí and Centro). Promoters estimate that this may reach 6000 euros/m2, given the scarcity of new construction products in the central area of Madrid.

The expectations generated by this operation have caused the upward re-valuation of this area and prompted a significant rise in the price of second-hand housing and the rentals market in the surrounding areas. Shortly, this will also lead to fewer neighbourhood retail businesses, as the commercial surface Carrefour is planning to open on one of the plots.

At present, the developers are asking the City Council for agreements to simultaneously execute urbanisation and construction works so that housing units may be built as soon as possible. Likewise, in 2020, the regional government reformed the Ley del Suelo, replacing the process of applying for new construction licenses and habitation certificates with declarations of responsibility by promoters and architects, thus reducing processing time. It had been foreseen to include this modification in the future *Ley del Suelo*, but the regional government decided to act sooner to drive and reactivate the productive fabric damaged by COVID-19. However, in early 2021, the opposition parties appealed

before the Constitutional Court to invalidate this legislative initiative, claiming that it was approved illegally.
