SEPES announces the presentation of the special plan for the development of Son Busquets before summer

The project will involve the creation of a new eco-neighborhood of reference in the middle of the Balearic capital, recovering old barracks in disuse, where to generate a residential offer for 2,500 people, with 831 affordable homes and 672 dotational accommodations, designed mainly for young and old people in the area.

SEPES General Director, Leire Iglesias, presented today, together with the government delegate in Illes Balears, Alfonso Rodríguez, the progress of the special plan that has been prepared by SEPES, the public business entity of land dependent of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda (MIVAU), for the development of the public residential performance of Son Busquets, an affordable housing project that aspires to become a benchmark for its urban quality and sustainability.

During the presentation to neighborhood representatives and different organizations of the local population, Leire Iglesias stressed that Son Busquets represents a strategic project of great importance for the housing policies of the Government of Spain and for this a proposal has been made that responds to the demand for affordable housing on the island, at the same time as advocating to develop a model of city aligned with the Spanish Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This action attached to the Affordable Rental Housing Plan (PVAA) will involve making available to citizens 831 new affordable homes and 672 dotational accommodations, designed especially for young and old. A residential offer for about 2,500 people, with which to alleviate the difficulties of access to housing that exist in the Mallorcan capital.

The project of Son Busquets will raise a new eco-neighborhood climate refuge, located in the urban center of Palma, giving a new life to a land of public ownership in disuse, and which will be a reference for its levels of sustainability, mixture of uses -which improve the offer of services for the neighbors of the neighborhood of Cas Capiscol and borderfes-, and prioritizing the creation of spaces for public use.

Thus, 60% of the area’s surface will go to public spaces, including a traffic-free central square and 3 hectares of green areas, with a large park with native vegetation and scarce water requirements. The special plan drafted by SEPES also includes 47,000 m² of tertiary area, in which the premises on the ground floor stand out, with which to boost local trade. It will also provide the neighborhood with 16,000 m² of equipment, divided between teaching equipment and other equipment compatible with cultural and socio-sanitary uses, and will recover part of the architectural complex of the old barracks, as an identity symbol of the area. The general director of SEPES has confirmed that this special plan will be presented before the summer, for processing by the City of Palma.

For its urban execution, an investment of 80.5 million euros has been budgeted, through an agreement signed between MIVAU and SEPES, of which more than 59 million have already been disbursed.

“The presentation of this proposal of the special plan reflects the continuous work that SEPES has been carrying out to transform Son Busquets from barracks that have lost their social function to a project that responds to the demands of the citizens of Palma. That is why the special plan includes many sensitivities extracted from the Social Memory elaborated by the previous Consistory, such as the existence of 60% of space for public use and the creation of dotational accommodations,” explains Leire Iglesias, general director of SEPES.

Signing of protocol with the City of Palma

As part of the development work of Son Busquets, the General Director of SEPES has today signed a protocol of intent with the Mayor of Palma de Mallorca, Jaime Martínez, by which both bodies establish the general bases of collaboration and cooperation aimed at promoting action.

Both bodies commit themselves in the document to combine efforts to make the Son Busquets area a reality as soon as possible, through the accelerated presentation of the urban planning instruments by the public business entity of land and the prioritization of the processing of them by the City of Palma.

Continuous work in Son Busquets

Since SEPES became the owner of the land in April 2023, the entity attached to MIVAU has carried out an ongoing task to speed up the implementation of the Son Busquets project. Thus, it has carried out work for the adaptation of the scope and the studies necessary for the approval of the planning.

In this regard, the entity under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda has just completed the fieldwork of the geotechnical study and has litigated the contract for the clearing and cleaning works and the realization of the strategic environmental assessment. These actions are in addition to the topographic study, with the lifting of point clouds by means of drones, already carried out, and the implementation of electronic surveillance services in the field, a new step in the strengthening of the security of the land, after the completion of the repair works and closure of the doors and gates. Likewise, a contracting dossier of a study of energy alternatives for action is under way.

SEPES

SEPES Public Enterprise Land Entity is a public agency attached to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda. As a public instrument, it works in the development of urban activities, both in the promotion, acquisition and preparation of land, for industrial, residential, tertiary and service projects.

SEPES currently has residential actions under the Affordable Rental Housing Plan (PVAA) in nine Autonomous Communities, which will allow the development of more than 16,000 affordable public housing and, at the same time, works on the analysis of new locations to increase this number. Among these actions, in addition to Son Busquets, in Palma, there are urban regeneration operations as important as Camp, in Madrid, the Engineering Headquarters, in Valencia or Buenavista, in Malaga.

In Balears, the entity dependent on the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda has residential actions in Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca that will allow the promotion of more than 2,000 homes and residential accommodation