It is not new that A large part of the Argentine business community feels very identified with Javier Milei. Some claim that Mauricio Macri was also a great ally of the business oligarchy, although they criticize that many of the measures he took were to benefit his own reign of firms. What no one can doubt is that both Javier Milei and the Macri Clan have a great partner in common: the owner of the IRSA Group, Eduardo Elsztain. In the last hours a report from the Right to the City Observatory (ODC) assures that the current head of the Buenos Aires Government, Jorge Macriwill deliver around 14 billion pesos to the real estate businessman.
Eduardo Elsztain, owner of the IRSA group
During the administration of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, the Buenos Aires Executive undertook important changes in the Historic Center. A fact that should never have happened, given that that sector of the City should be preserved and protected. In 2016, Rodríguez Larreta auctioned the Del Plata Building and was delivered for 68 million dollars to the hipotecary Banc whose owner is Eduardo Elsztain.
Several of the government offices that were in this building were relocated to other buildings that the Buenos Aires government had to rent, including the building of the former Canale factory.
“Now Jorge Macri is going to return 14 billion pesos through Law No. 6508, which provides 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 properties and land in the City of Buenos Aires and that historically it has made great deals with public land,” Engineer María Eva Koutsovitis, Coordinator of the Community Engineering Chair and member of the ODC, denounces in the report.
For its part, lawyer Jonatan Baldiviezo, founder of the Right to the City Observatory, explains in the report: “Law No. 6508 was not designed for the refunctionalization of the microcenter for social housing but so that the 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,” he explains.
For the lawyer, “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 Banco Hipotecario. 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. Definitely, the Law No. 6508 It aims to camouflage the need for housing and give life to the downtown area 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 They remain intact,” he adds.
The division of the Historical Case
According to the report of the ODC The Microcenter and the Historic Center could be divided, broadly speaking, into two large sectors: the office sector and the residential sector.
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 others.
For the purposes of the aforementioned 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 Plata Building is located in this polygon. 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.
