Barcelona City Council has provisionally approved an urban planning operation to restore the historic Capitol Theatre, with the plan centred on properties near Plaça Catalunya. The move was backed by the local executive, Junts and PP, while BComú, ERC and Vox voted against it.
The operation will not directly cost the municipal coffers. It involves reclassifying two key properties, the former Telefónica headquarters and the theatre itself, and allows Torcalena Servicios y Gestiones to convert the Telefónica building into offices and retail space.
Culture councillor Xavier Marcé said the strategy depends on a new Ciutat Vella usage plan. He said it would help revitalise La Rambla through the recovery of a historic facility, and added that the renewed Capitol Theatre will also house the offices of the Barcelona Libraries Consortium and other elements linked to a new socio-cultural plan for La Rambla.
Damià Calvet, a Junts councillor, said his party shares the initiative's approach and values, and that it includes Junts' request to find spaces for popular and traditional culture. Sonia Devesa, a PP councillor, said the Capitol has real cultural value and that the operation combines economic activity with the preservation of what has civic value.
Opposition councillors criticised the plan. Lucía Martín of BComú called it a speculative operation that will attract more tourists to the city centre. Eva Baró of ERC said recovering the Capitol as a public cultural facility is good news, but regretted that the public return is not proportional to the capital gain it generates. Liberto Senderos of Vox described it as an urban planning windfall and said culture must originate from private initiative.
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