The mayor highlights that this project will contribute substantially to improving the competitiveness of companies, creating jobs and boosting the economy.
Jorge Ramos emphasizes that during the busiest times there will be around 100 direct jobs at the construction site and announces a second phase to continue with the redevelopment of the industrial estate.
City Council and the Free Trade Zone will sign in the coming days the agreement for the acquisition of land destined for a large logistics area with tax and customs advantages
The mayor of Jerez, María José García-Pelayo, and the Special State delegate in the Free Trade Zone of Cádiz, Jorge Ramos, visited this morning the redevelopment works of the El Portal industrial estate, which are the result of a collaboration agreement signed between the City Council and the Free Trade Zone to carry out comprehensive improvement actions in this important business space in the city.
Also present on the visit were the First Deputy Mayor, Antonio Saldaña, the delegate of Urban Planning, the delegate of Participation and Districts, José Galvín, Agustín Muñoz, the Councilor for Infrastructure, María José Rúa, as well as the president of Adecosur, Javier Lobo, and the president of Solidaridad, Sebastián Peña.
The works, which have an investment of about 2.8 million euros, are co-financed by the City Council and the Free Zone through Funds within the framework of the FEDER Operational Program of Andalusia 2007-2013, and, as both the mayor and Jorge Ramos have announced, at times of greatest activity, there will be about 100 direct jobs.
Likewise, the Special Delegate of the Free Trade Zone has announced that these works constitute a first phase of a broader project that aims to completely regeneration this entire industrial space, which houses some 600 companies.
In this first phase, the four main communication routes of El Portal will be redeveloped, such as Alcalde Cantos Ropero, Sudráfrica, Morocco, Senegal, and in the subsequent phases the remaining streets and areas that make up this Polygon will be continued. The redevelopment includes the reform of roads and sidewalks, as well as the improvement of public lighting, clearing work, or gardening.
As the mayor pointed out during her visit, "these works respond to the commitment we acquired with the businessmen of the Polígono and with Adecosur, who, for years, have been telling us about the state of abandonment of this space and its infrastructure, to comprehensively regenerate this space to make companies more competitive and attract new investments, and with this, promote employment and economic activity."
The works, which are being carried out by the UTE OHL Obrascom Huarte Lain-UCOP SAU, are part of the collaboration agreements that the Jerez City Council maintains with Zona Franca, which are enabling other actions in the city to promote employment and economic activity, such as the creation of the San Agustín Business Center, whose works are very advanced and several offices are already available in the Las Caballerizas building, annexed to the main cloister, and now finished.
For all this, he has once again reiterated his gratitude to Jorge Ramos for his support and commitment to Jerez from day one, "we believe that collaboration between administrations is essential to carry out beneficial projects for the city and Zona Franca is demonstrating day by day its commitment to the society of Jerez, and more specifically with its entrepreneurs, businessmen and self-employed workers, with projects that are already a reality."
As the mayor has pointed out, "from day one we have been committed to employment and the generation of wealth, and for that reason, we are putting in value all the resources that the city has and taking advantage of the potential of Jerez and its areas of opportunities by launching projects like this one, which in its busiest moments will have about 100 direct jobs."
In this sense, he stressed that the Portal "is one of the largest industrial estates in the province, with 172 hectares, and it had not been renovated for years, so from the beginning we proposed this comprehensive action that would revitalize it and make it more competitive, with the consequent benefit for its companies."
Regarding its co-financing, the mayor has indicated that the City Council is going to contribute a total of one million euros to these works. Likewise, the City Council, through the Urban Planning Delegation, undertook the drafting of the project, under the supervision of the Zona Franca technicians, and has assumed the voluntary direction of the works.
For his part, Jorge Ramos has once again highlighted "the very close relationship that the Zona Franca and the City Council have, which has known how to see that in us it has a partner and an ally and that it has us at its side, in these moments of economic reactivation, to try to move things forward."
The special delegate of the Free Zone has advanced that these works will have a second phase "to leave the entire industrial estate in the conditions that a city like Jerez requires." Regarding the project that is underway, Jorge Ramos has pointed out the “important impact that its execution has, not only for citizens and businessmen, but also for employment, because in times of normal activity it will reach 50 or 60 jobs, and in times of greater activity, it will be close to 100 direct jobs.”
Regarding other projects in which the City Council and Zona Franca work together, Jorge Ramos has advanced that "in the coming days we will continue to be in Jerez because we will definitively sign the presence of Zona Franca in the city with the acquisition of the land of the Transport City in which the development of a large logistics area is planned, with the tax and customs advantages that this entails."
El Portal redevelopment project
The project includes the comprehensive redevelopment of the polygon's roads, for which the reorganization of the sections of these streets has been planned in order to guarantee and organize the vehicle traffic and parking spaces that are generated.
These roads, which total a surface area of 225,440 square meters, are Cantos Ropero Avenue, about 2,500 linear meters long; Sudráfrica Street, with 2,300 linear meters; Morocco Street, 1,500 meters long, and also Senegal Street, 320 meters long.
In this first phase of action, work related to the pavement, parking lots and sidewalks is contemplated, mainly, as well as those works necessary to modify the services that may be affected. Likewise, the implementation of a 2.5 m bicycle lane has been planned along Cantos Ropero Avenue and a section of Morocco Street. wide
In this first phase, the repair or transfer of some public lighting point is also planned to adapt it to the new sections of the streets. Gardening work and clearing or replacing trees are also included.
This El Portal rehabilitation project joins other actions carried out by the City Council, through Emusujesa, within the framework of the reindustrialization aid plans, Reindus, to improve signage and lighting in the area, works that have already been completed. Likewise, in August 2013, the new South Zone Clean Point located in the El Portal Industrial Park was inaugurated, whose redevelopment works, co-financed by the European Union through the Urban Initiative Plan (Plan Urban), had a budget of 113,980.74 euros.