That’s Entertainment: Industrial estates (12 November)

Andratx is to get an industrial estate. Lucky old Andratx. Or should that be unlucky old Andratx?

The good news is that it might not be built because of land restrictions. The bad news is that the town hall is looking at how it might be able to sidestep by-laws.

Why my negativity? Haven’t I often spoken of the need for greater diversification in the Mallorcan economy? Haven’t I even spoken of industry being a potential source of tourism? I have indeed. The need for diversification is unquestionable, and around Andratx there is relatively little by way of industrial activity. So shouldn’t I be all in favour of an industrial estate?

In theory, yes. It is not a case of being against an industrial estate but of being highly suspicious as to what might end up on it. Industrial estates have become a misnomer, as they are littered with anything other than industry.

Part of the reason why Andratx wants an industrial estate is that it does have some light industry but it clogs up parts of the town and port. Far better, therefore, to put it all in one place, thus easing congestion and offering better facilities for the light industry. However, it’s the nature of this light industry that had me shaking my head. Carpentry, metalwork, small construction firms; much of it is of the small workshop-type business, and it is just this sort of business that has been leaving industrial estates elsewhere in Mallorca in droves.

Mallorca’s local industry has suffered badly by comparison with other parts of Spain. A decline of some 30% in industrial activity in the five years up to 2010 was way higher than elsewhere, the 30% drop more or less equating to the 30% that is said to be how much more expensive it is to produce in Mallorca than much of Spain.

The greater cost of production and the fall in industrial activity are not solely due to higher transport costs; the Canary Islands, by contrast, haven’t suffered to anything like the same extent as Mallorca. One factor that has been critical has been the cost of industrial land; twice as much as the Canaries, for example, or six times as much as Aragon on the mainland. And key to the cost of industrial land in Mallorca have been speculative developments and speculative property acquisition.

Take a look around some industrial estates, and you come to appreciate that they don’t necessarily exist to aid industry; small industry especially. As you enter one of Inca’s estates, what do you see? Car showrooms, one for Honda power tools and equipment, an office building for a major hotel chain, Garden. It is not untypical. Banks have colonised industrial estates, as have entertainment centres which can even include the ambiguously monikered “alternative” clubs. Part of Inca’s third industrial estate will be set aside for entertainment. Why?

The reason is very simple. The level of speculation has driven the cost of land up to such an extent that the only businesses that can afford them are the bigger businesses or those that can generate good profits, and so I have to assume that “alternative” clubs can do just that.

According to the Chamber of Commerce, at least 20% of industrial land on Mallorca is in fact used for commercial purposes, and this percentage will vary significantly from town to town and estate to estate. The figure is probably on the conservative side, as it has also been reported that entertainment centres have gobbled up so much land that should have been for industrial purposes that only some 3% is available.

One has to treat this figure with some caution, as there are estates which are under-utilised and always have been, something they might wish to consider in Andratx. Nevertheless, and though economic hard times have clearly played their part, it is the sheer cost of the land that has resulted in plots being unoccupied or in businesses abandoning estates; and the small businesses, the carpentry and metalwork concerns and such like, have been the ones to the fore in getting out.

So Andratx is to get an industrial estate. Good for Andratx. Or is it good for speculators? Unless the town hall were to find some mechanism whereby land could be affordable, its wishes to have its small businesses transfer will probably be thwarted. These businesses might be well advised to stay put, and if they do, then the industrial estate will have achieved nothing. Congestion won’t have been alleviated and there will be a part of the town that is given over to showrooms and entertainment.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

In A Wrong Place: Architecture

Alcúdia has some old ruins, and not just the Roman ones.

The long-abandoned Es Foguero nightclub has been home to vagrants and was the last resting-place of one: “El Gallego”, who was murdered there last summer. Even longer-abandoned is the original power station, the two chimneys of which stand less than proud on the landscape of the bay of Alcúdia.

The site of GESA’s former power station is meant to become a museum of science and technology. The cost has been put at 21 million euros.

In October 2007, a Pamplona-based architects practice, Alonso Hernández y Asociados, beat off competition from the likes of the Millennium Dome designer, Lord Rogers, in winning the pitch for the conversion of the site. The architects promised a concept called “el claro en el bosque” – the clearing in the forest.

What has since happened is that some clearance work has been undertaken, not directly related to the museum. The science and technology clearing in the forest may now never be built.

A year after the award to the Pamplona firm, there was a presentation of what the museum might be. It was made in Alcúdia’s auditorium. A presentation is as much as there has ever been. Even then it was being admitted that the finance for the project was not in place, and it still isn’t.

Economic crisis has caused a rethink of many public developments. If it causes there to be more thought applied to both the necessity and the architecture of some of these developments, then it will have been worth enduring.

There is some really rotten architecture in Mallorca, most of it contemporary. It is not rotten per se, but it is rotten because it has no sense of place. We might not ever know what the clearing in the forest will finally be like, but the inspiration was said to have come from the Tate Modern, the converted Bankside Power Station on London’s South Bank. Would this be appropriate for a tourist location on a bay of some not little outstanding beauty?

The auditorium was an apt building in which to hold the presentation of the museum. The puff maintains that the auditorium is of contemporary design. It may well be, but contemporary doesn’t mean remarkable, and this the auditorium most certainly isn’t. Moreover, it reflects in no way the historic walls of the town which stand opposite, while it has never operated at anything like capacity.

Similarly, the Can Ramis building in Alcúdia’s market square suffers from being under-utilised and from being a totally alien structure. Like much new residential architecture and an absurd building that has risen right on Pollensa’s Plaça Major and next to the church, it is symptomatic of how architects have seen the future – it is block-shaped and cuboidal.

Contemporary design does not have to be a mélange of competing styles. Anyone familiar with Bath’s SouthGate Centre will know that it is possible to merge the new with the old almost seamlessly, while still creating a highly modern feel, so much so that you have the impression of walking through a computer simulation.

Questionable both in design and in purpose. This has been the problem with some local building development. In the same way, so have other projects. Industrial estates, for example. Pollensa’s is far from full. In Alcúdia, the layout was finished a couple of years ago. It stands empty and now blocked to access. The official reason why it is empty has to do with a failure to arrive at agreement over electricity supply, which is ironic, given that it is next to the current power station.

The fact is that some developments are simply unnecessary. Pollensa wants its own auditorium, but why build one when Alcúdia has one with spare capacity? It all comes down to me-too need and suspicions that there might be other factors at play.

The empty industrial estate is next to the Es Foguero ruin, one that became so largely because it was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The project for the old power station has suffered because the time was wrong. Were the museum to be built, it would still, because its design would retain the landscape-offensive chimneys, be in the wrong place. And in the wrong place is where other buildings now are, or they are just plain wrong because they are not needed.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Diamonds And Pearls: Losing Mallorca’s industrial treasures

The good news about the tourism industry continues. In August, hotel occupancy in Mallorca has risen by seven per cent, compared with 2009, while September is expected to witness a two per cent increase. It’s just as well that the industry is giving some reasons to be cheerful. Other industries make you want to weep.

Economic diversity in Mallorca is essential, but the contraction in sectors other than tourism is alarming. Over a period of five years, industrial activity has declined by just under 30%, a far greater fall than anywhere else in Spain. This reduction has affected more or less all the island’s smaller industries, ones traditionally associated with the island – pearls, marine, footwear – as well as those that are less traditional, such as chemicals. You name it, it’s on the way out.

It’s those stats chaps again. The national statistics office has recorded the fall in the production index and has shown that Mallorca’s island geography is not totally to blame for the slump. The Canaries haven’t suffered anything like the same scale of decline.

Isolation is a factor, though. It is estimated that because of transport costs alone, it can be 30% more expensive to produce locally, and then you have the costs of going the other way. The call has gone out for help in boosting exports, but it is not clear how this might be done, other than through local management of ports and the airport, as is being suggested. Quite how this might benefit in cost reduction, I’m unsure, as there are also the higher costs of local production associated with land. If you have ambitions of being a light manufacturer in Mallorca, then you probably need your head examining, or you should at least consider an alternative location. Industrial land costs almost twice as much as the Canaries and six times as much as in Aragon, a mainland province within shipping distance of the island.

This high, prohibitive almost, cost of land is attributed in part to speculative developments and property acquisition. Go around Mallorca and you will find industrial estates in most towns. Some, such as in Pollensa and Can Picafort, are under-occupied. The Alcúdia one is completely unoccupied, but that’s because they haven’t sorted out the electricity supply. In Inca, they are planning to build a third industrial estate, this for a town of under 30,000 people. On the larger estates in Palma, units are being abandoned because the costs are simply too great.

Why are all these industrial estates needed? The answer is that they’re not. But built they nevertheless are, with a suspicion that someone might have profited illicitly. And they all come with a mix of usage. The new Inca estate has provision for a percentage of land for entertainment purposes; you might recall the talk of a theme park there. It is this sort of provision, as well as that for large car showrooms and banks (which can afford the higher rents) that is one reason for driving up the cost of what is then limited land for industrial purposes. This is not the whole story, however. Over supply would suggest that costs would be lower, but they’re not. It’s a familiar tale where Mallorca land for residential purposes is concerned. Greed is probably one element, and the Mallorcans are renowned for it, on top of which is the fact that units and land on industrial estates are bought by speculators who have no intention of renting them out at what might be affordable levels for smaller businesses.

Clearly if industrial activity slumps to the degree that it has and may continue to, and if nothing comes along to replace the old factories, then there is an employment problem. Decline of manufacturing may be compensated by an increase in services, but the question then is, which ones. Mallorca needs an economic strategic plan, one that has been necessary for years. But it is no nearer getting one, and all the while the traditional industries and small businesses fold or shift out of industrial units with their inflated price tags.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

From Off My Wrist

Now how about this for a bit of a dodgy carry-on? Heard the one about tourists being asked to sell their all-inclusive hotel wristbands which are then either sold on (at a profit) or just used to get free food and drink, while those who’ve sold them go and say they’ve lost their band and ask for and get a replacement? Who do you think, allegedly, or so I’m told, are to the fore in doing the buying of these wristbands? Go on, guess. Think “on the streets” and something else starting with an “s”. I also understand that one hotel in the port area that has been affected by this is now well aware of what’s going on. So if you flog your band for a tenner and go and demand a new one, they may just be a tad suspicious. Mind you, this wristband business or whatever system exists to show that the punter is all-inclusive is not much of a system. I know of a couple who stayed in a well-known all-inclusive in Can Picafort on a half-board basis, or at least that was what they had booked, only to discover that, with the exception of obtaining spirits, the hotel took no notice as to what board status there was. Anyone, it would seem, could have come in and helped themselves to the buffet, as indeed did this couple. The hotels should come up with something more foolproof – the scanning of a microchip implanted into the skull perhaps.

Industrial quantities
News that businesses are deserting large industrial estates in Palma because of the costs of the premises, and this despite cuts to rentals by almost a third, does make one wonder about the industrial estate in Alcúdia. Apparently, says “The Bulletin”, industrial estate plots in Mallorca are the most expensive in Spain, so under the current economic circumstances it isn’t surprising that businesses are looking elsewhere. But there are also a lot of them. There are, for example, estates in Pollensa, Can Picafort and now Alcúdia, the latter recently developed after fifteen years of yes-no-maybe-and-finally-yes, developed to some of the highest environmental standards, and empty. Maybe it’s too early and there will be businesses clamouring to get space, but that might now seem questionable. The one advantage that the Alcúdia estate has over the other two is its proximity to the road leading to the motorway, but whether this is a major advantage is also probably questionable, though the timing of the green light for its development seemed coincidental with the building of the new road into Alcúdia.

Why does every town seem to need an industrial estate? Is there really that much demand? Or was there ever that much demand? There is a sense of the can-we-have-a-golf-course me-too about them: other towns have one, so we want one as well. But to what end? Perhaps it will all be fine and the Alcúdia estate will thrive and be packed with all sorts of business, but take a look around, for instance, the Pollensa estate and you might begin to doubt this.