Álvaro Aresti: Madrid Nuevo Norte will make Madrid an international benchmark for sustainability and urban innovation

The Environmental Adviser in the Region of Madrid indicated that the CAM is committed to Madrid Nuevo Norte as a strategic measure to reactivate the economy.

Alvaro Aresti highlighted the project’s capacity to generate quality jobs and attract talent.

The president of Distrito Castellana Norte (DCN), Álvaro Aresti, closed the meeting “Urban development as a pole of attraction for investment and talent in the Region of Madrid”, organised by the newspaper Expansión, together with the Region of Madrid and CBRE, to highlight how Madrid Nuevo Norte will contribute to make Madrid an international benchmark in terms of sustainability and urban innovation.

Aresti stressed that this project is an opportunity to move out of the crisis. The commencement of the works will coincide in time with the end of the pandemic, which will enable Madrid Nuevo Norte to be “a clear opportunity to contribute to the economic recovery of the region and the country, and also to the excitement of the people of Madrid, who will finally get to see how their city undertakes an iconic project that will transform the image of their city and project it internationally”.

The president of DCN noted that this project, the largest urban regeneration project in Europe, will have the capacity to create some 250,000 jobs during its 25 years of development, but will also be able to generate some 100,000 more jobs once it is completed, thanks to the strength of its innovative centre of economic activity designed specifically to attract and retain the best young talent in the country and around the world. “I am particularly excited about these jobs, which will be linked to talent and to a new economy of innovation and knowledge, in which Madrid has the chance to position itself as a European benchmark”, he explained.

Aresti also stressed that Madrid Nuevo Norte is not just a project for the future; it will begin to contribute to the recovery of the region from the very start: “In the first five years of project implementation alone, the approximately 5 billion euros of investment will be mobilised, which will generate an impact of 954 million euros in the national GDP. In the same period, MNN will create 18,000 jobs.

Madrid Nuevo Norte’s contribution to the economic recovery of the region was also the subject of the speech by the Regional Adviser for Environment and Territorial Planning in the Region of Madrid, Paloma Martín, who opened the meeting by reiterating the commitment of the regional government to this project as a strategic measure to reactivate the region’s economy. In her speech, the Regional Adviser affirmed that “the Regional Government will contribute to the development of Madrid Nuevo Norte to make it an attractive place to live and work, but also a pole of attraction for investment, human talent and job creation”.

Martín mentioned some of the key actions that will make Madrid Nuevo Norte a powerful backbone of mobility for the entire region, including the multimodal transport interchange that will be located next to Chamartín Station, and the new new Metro line and the Cercanías commuter-rail station, all of which depend on the Region of Madrid. He also noted that thirteen kilometres of Canal de Isabel II water pipes will be renovated, improving the pipes through which 60% of the water that is currently drunk in the region passes. Lastly, the Adviser stated that Madrid Nuevo Norte represents “sustainable urban planning for the 21st century, with 400,000 square metres of green areas have planned around a large Central Park”.

The meeting included a panel of experts, including the director of Strategy and Corporate Development of DCN, Miguel Hernández, together with the president of CBRE Spain, Adolfo Ramírez and the president of Madrid World Capital of Construction, Engineering and Architecture, David García, the dean of the Professional Association of Architects of Madrid (COAM), Sigfrido Herráez, and the CEO and Founder of the Metropolis Foundation, Alfonso Vegara.

Hernandez analysed the characteristics that planning must have to be able to boost the economy and attract talent, since urban developments have the ability to “attract investment and help it plant its seeds and bear fruit, which will then remain forever,” he said. In addition to macroeconomic factors and legal security, in order to be authentic generators of investment, urban projects the residential aspect must take into account, with an emphasis on subsidised housing; a flexibly designed tertiary; and services, “so that the city is equipped with facilities simultaneously with the development of housing and tertiary”, he specified.

For the DCN representative, the management model is also a vital aspect, “with a real public-private partnership”, he clarified, as is the case in Madrid Nuevo Norte.

Miguel Hernández insisted that Madrid Nuevo Norte, “although it is physically in the north, is not a project for the north of Madrid; it is not even just a project for the city, but rather for the entire region, due to its enormous accessibility by public transport, with 5.8 million people who can reach the area by public transport in an hour”.

All of the speakers shared the opinion that large-scale urban and infrastructure projects must contribute to the internationalisation of Madrid by attracting talent and fostering innovation. “Cities cooperate and compete with each other, and the biggest battle is the training, attraction and retention of talent. Without talent there is no innovation”, summed up Alfonso Vegara.