The mayor, María José García-Pelayo, and the Special State Delegate of the Free Trade Zone Consortium, Jorge Ramos, have presided today over the initiation of the rehabilitation works of the old San Agustín convent for its conversion into a business and business services center, a strategic project of great importance for Jerez and the province, which is intended to support entrepreneurs and self-employed workers in the area, and which contemplates an investment of four million euros, financed with Funds Feder, through the Consortium.
The event was attended by the subdelegate of the Government in Cádiz, Javier de Torre, members of the municipal Government, as well as representatives of the social and economic sectors of the city, as well as technical staff from the Free Trade Zone Consortium and the City Council who have worked on the project.
The mayor has pointed out that the creation of this facility in the heart of the city center "is good news for Jerez as it will be an enormous stimulus for the local economy and will contribute to revitalizing the center and commercial life."
María José García-Pelayo has stressed that the project has a double objective, “because it not only offers the opportunity to adapt the use of the building to current needs – Throughout its history it has housed a hospital, a convent and a barracks, and is currently occupied in its rehabilitated part by municipal offices - but will also enable the complete recovery of this emblematic building of historical heritage of great cultural and artistic value and make it available to citizens, in this case, to entrepreneurs and the self-employed.
Furthermore, this action, as the mayor has highlighted, includes the redevelopment of the accesses to Jerez along Puerto Street, significantly improving its current image and communications, with new elements that will make it more attractive, such as a grove of trees and new parking areas for tourist buses, which is a historical claim of the city.
Given the enormous benefit that this project will bring to the city, the mayor thanked Jorge Ramos for the speed with which the entire administrative process prior to the execution of the works was carried out; He has also highlighted the work carried out by the first Deputy Mayor, Antonio Saldaña, by the Urban Planning delegate, Agustín Muñoz and by the team of architects that has drafted the basic rehabilitation project, as well as the staff of the Land Company who have been working with Zona Franca in defining the project.
This start of works occurs, according to the mayor, at a time when different indicators seem to point to 2014 being a better year for the development of the economy and for employment. The mayor has highlighted the importance that the future center will have for the business community and has commented as important data on the figures published on the General Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA), which reflects that in 2013 it registered an upward trend in terms of the number of self-employed workers, reaching more than 9,000 for the first time since 2008.
He has also stressed that this project aims to contribute to curbing the growth of unemployment and to do so, work continues in collaboration with the different administrations and social and economic agents.
For all this, María José García-Pelayo has been convinced that the start of these works is good news for Jerez because it will not only have new equipment for the business sector and that will create employment from the first day that the rehabilitation works will begin, but it also contemplates the renewal and modernization of services and infrastructure of a very attractive central space from a commercial and tourist point of view.
In parallel with this project, he has pointed out other actions that will be carried out, such as the reorganization of Plaza Esteve, the enhancement of the Stud Depot, which will be carried out through the public company Tragsa, or the construction works of the new Local Police Headquarters building, which are already underway.
Likewise, the mayor recalled that these actions will be carried out together with other smaller ones that are included in the Action Plan or the Urban Plan.
For his part, Jorge Ramos has highlighted the work of the technical team, both from the City Council and the Free Trade Zone, which has made the project possible and has recalled the steps that have been taken to advance the administrative procedure until reaching today.
The Free Trade Zone delegate has pointed out the importance of this action because "it highlights and demonstrates the commitment we make to the world of entrepreneurs, since the vocation of this building is to be the home of these entrepreneurs, who have to boost the economic fabric of the province."
Likewise, he highlighted that this center in Jerez will complement other facilities of this type that the Free Trade Zone has in the province of Cádiz, and will mean “that in the short term we will have an important network of office building centers with a clear business and commercial vocation”; In that sense, he has indicated that the one in Jerez will join the five that already exist in Cádiz, the two in Algeciras, and the Vejer, Arcos and Chiclana, one for each town.
For Jorge Ramos, this action also reflects Zona Franca's commitment to paying the debt it has with Jerez due to an agreement that was not developed at the time and that now, with this and other actions underway, it wants to settle: "Zona Franca has a vocation to stay in Jerez, we know what actions we want to do in Jerez and we are putting it into action."
In this sense, he recalled the agreement that will be signed soon to undertake the transformation of the El Portal industrial estate, with an investment of four million euros, or the expansion of the Free Trade Zone to the entire province, including Jerez. On this matter, Jorge Ramos has pointed out that "an essential part of this important leap in this expansion, which will mean going from the current 300,000 square meters of tax area to 1,300,000 square meters that there will be in five years, passes through Jerez. To achieve this, we are moving forward in collaboration with the economic agents and hand in hand with the City Council in making the project of having a tax and customs area in Jerez with 250,000 square meters a reality."
In addition, he referred to the recently signed agreement to create a mixed office between Jerez and the Free Trade Zone in the city of Jerez, "to see how to manage the obtaining of land and perfect the planning instruments that allow us to materialize this action."