The Barcelona City Council has announced the imminent closure of the controversial 24-hour supermarket that opened this summer in a building on Rambla Catalunya that had been the former headquarters of the Economy of the Generalitat.
The establishment, which occupies the first floor of the Heribert Pons house, a modernist building listed as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest located at number 19-20 Rambla Catalunya, has been denounced for operating without permits . In addition, the city council has explained that it has issued the local for having carried out works without authorization and also developed the activity without the relevant license.
Therefore, municipal sources have informed media such as La Vanguardia that the next step will be to issue a cease and desist order and notify the owners of the business. If they do not comply voluntarily within the established deadlines, the City Council will proceed to the forced closure of the premises.
A controversial supermarket
The establishment became in summer the center of an intense debate, not only because of the alleged illegality (now confirmed) of its operation, but also because of the model of city it comes to represent. The supermarket, a 24-hour establishment, generated by the historical value of the building in which it was located and by the little added value provided by a type of business that abounds in the area and which is intended, mostly, to tourism.
The deputy mayor of Urbanism, Laia Bonet, has pointed out that the City Council never allowed the opening or the works in this protected premises, and the mayor, Jaume Collboni, defends that the inspection procedures were initiated and sanctioned as soon as the irregularity was detected.
This episode is one more of the tensions that the city has been experiencing in recent years regarding tourism and the city model. From the demonstrations against mass tourism to the tensions experienced in Park Güell as a result of the America’s Cup events,