From the Observatory of the Right to the City they pointed out that “within the framework of ‘The Transformation Doesn’t Stop’, the Buenos Aires Government decided to make major changes in the Historic Center, precisely in the sector of the City of Buenos Aires that should not be transformed but rather preserved. and protect yourself. Through urban interventions, in public space and transportation, the GCBA is accelerating the process of gentrification (expulsion) of residents and traditional businesses in the Historic Center to turn it into a large open-air gastronomic and entertainment hub. intended mainly for tourism and not for its permanent residents and, in addition, generating gigantic real estate deals with public resources.”
The Microcentro and the Historic Center could be divided, broadly speaking, into two large sectors, the office sector and the residential sector.
According to the Observatory “in the office sector, the GCBA promotes the ‘Transformation and Reconversion Plan of the Buenos Aires Microcenter’, promoting its residentialization. To meet this objective, the Legislature enacted Law No. 6508 “On the Reconversion of the Central Area.” In accordance with this law, following the policy of Districts with tax benefits, those who carry out rehabilitation or reconversion projects of buildings for housing or strategic activities may count as payment on account of the Tax on Gross Income, with respect to all economic activities. that develop in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, a percentage of the amount invested in the works of up to 60%, the first 15, and 50%, the rest.
“If the amount obtained based on the calculation established in this chapter is higher than the amount of tax payable, the difference will generate balances in favor that may be offset until exhausted. For the purposes of this law, it was established that the Central Area of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires will be comprised of the streets Avenida Santa Fe, Crucero General Belgrano, Avenida del Libertador, Avenida Leandro N. Alem, Avenida Paseo Colón, Avenida Belgrano, Bernardo de Irigoyen and Carlos Pellegrini, on both sidewalks.”
The director of the Observatory, Jonatan Baldiciezo, highlighted that “the Plata Building is located in this polygon.”
In Administrative File No. EX-2024-10736225-GCABA-DGSOCAI, originated as a result of a request for access to public information made by the Observatory of the Right to the City and the Movement The City We Are Those Who Live In It, through of Report No. IF-2024-15711057-GCABA-DGEPRP and Report No. IF-2024-11566570-GCABA-DGDEC, the General Directorate of Productive Strategy and Promotion Regimes of the Ministry of Economic Development reported that:
1. Banco Hipotecario SA is a beneficiary of Law No. 6508 and its request to be incorporated into the benefits of the law has already been approved.
2. Under the approved reconversion project, you will have a benefit of 60% of the amount invested in the project referring to adaptation, adaptation or reform works, as payment on account of the Tax on Gross Income resulting from the exercise of your activity in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires
3. The electronic file number through which the project is processed is N° EX-2022-42956596-
-GCABA-UCGPP.
4. The conversion project corresponds to the property located on Carlos Pellegrini Street No. 211, No. 213 and No. 251. (Former Edificio del Plata)
5. The amount to be invested declared in the reconversion project presented is $23,230,462,000.
6. The project involves the refunctionalization of 60,244 m2 intended for housing on a plot of land measuring 4,247 m2.
María Eva Koutsovitis, Coordinator of the Community Engineering Chair and founder of The City We Are Who We Live In Movement, expressed: “Mauricio Macri promoted the sale of the Del Plata Building through Law No. 4473 voted in 2013. In 2016, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta wrongly auctioned the Del Plata Building for 68 million dollars and it was sold to Banco Hipotecario whose Owner is Eduardo Elsztain. Many of the government offices that were in this building were relocated to other buildings that the GCBA had to rent, for example, the former Canale factory building. The interest of the largest urban landowner prevailed over the real estate efficiency of the GCBA. Now, Jorge Macri is going to return 14 million pesos through Law No. 6508, which grants legal camouflage to this fraud of state coffers. There is no constitutional or moral justification for the GCBA to give away around 14 billion pesos to the person who has the most property and land in the City of Buenos Aires and who has historically made great deals with public land.”
Baldiviezo added: “Law No. 6508 was not designed to refunctionalize the microcenter for social housing but so that large banks could refunctionalize their buildings to use them for tourist rentals. The refunctionalization of a building requires modifying the co-ownership regulations with the unanimous approval of its owners. This is extremely difficult within the terms of the law, but the difficulty disappears when the owner owns the entire building as in the case of the Mortgage Bank. On the other hand, only large landowners can take advantage of the tax benefits because they can incorporate the tax debts of all their activities in the city. In short, Law No. 6508 aims to camouflage the need for housing and give life to the downtown with billion-dollar subsidies to large property owners. In a context of adjustment and housing emergency, Jorge Macri will give away billions of pesos for large owners to condition their properties. The case of the Edificio del Plata is an example that the privileges of the real estate corporation remain intact.”
