Activities
The Port Vell, the citizens’ area of the Port of Barcelona, is considered as a worldwide paradigm of port-city integration. The 70 hectares of the Port Vell bring together a business area, several infrastructures of cultural and educational scope, an extensive shopping and entertainment zone, a sports and nautical area and the fishermen's wharf. It is a favourite spot for Barcelona residents and visitors alike, a fact borne out by the 17 million visitors that go there every year. The Port Vell is in a moment of full expansion. The remodelling of the fishing building and equipments is taking place not only to improve the infrastructures of the Fishermen's Guild, but also to open to the public this historical and unique area of the city. In the nautical sector, Port Vell will soon have new facilities: the Marina Vela, which will have capacity to accommodate 150 medium vessels and a dry marina for 225 boats. Also worthy of note is the development of the world leader in the repair and maintenance of large yachts, Marina Barcelona 92 (MB92), with a new 4,000t Shiplift under construction. Another action that will start soon is the integral reform of the Port of Barcelona’s institutional building to house an interpretation center on the history and functioning of this capital infrastructure. "Gerència Urbanística Port Vell" was founded in 1988 by the Port Authority of Barcelona for the purpose of planning and executing the Special Urbanisation Plan of Port Vell (Barcelona’s Old Port) as a valuable instrument for achieving the necessary agility in the development of new projects and in the management of public spaces in the port-city environment. Its area of responsibility has been extended from preparing and executing new infrastructure projects for Port Vell, urbanization projects in public spaces and the follow-up and supervision of concession projects and works, to exploiting the public spaces once completed and the publicity rights of Port Vell, proposing and managing possible future investments in this area.