A multi-million euro investment and the future Clínic Hospital relaunch the Can Rigalt sector in the north of L’Hospitalet
The real estate developer Metropolitan House has entered the project to lead an ambitious transformation involving Barça, which was blocked by the crisis. A cumbersome electrical substation is blocking the development: its relocation alone costs €60 million and is scheduled for 2027.
EL PERIÓDICO Manuel Arenas. Barcelona Metropolitan Area 21/02/2025
An opportunity has arisen to the north of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat to emerge from the urban neglect in which it has been mired for a couple of decades. This is where the so-called Can Rigalt sector is located, an area of some 156,000 m2 where its privileged location – close to the Diagonal, at the intersection between Barcelona, L’Hospitalet and Esplugues de Llobregat – contrasts with its neglect since the financial crisis of 2008 left its development in the lurch. In 2007, the Hospitalet council approved a plan to remove a cumbersome Endesa electrical substation that, even today, obstructs the urbanization of the sector. But the change of direction for Can Rigalt is approaching due to the confluence of two movements: a multi-million euro investment by the property developer Metropolitan House, determined to revive the area, and the future landing of the new L’Hospital Clínic on the nearby sports grounds of the University of Barcelona (UB) on the Diagonal.
“We want to lead the transformation of Can Rigalt,” Metropolitan House president Rafael Angulo told to EL PERIÓDICO. The developer has already paid 19 million euros for the purchase of some 72,000 m2 of land from Empresa and Sacresa for its surface area in the sector, which is equivalent to some 40,000 m2 of residential space. This amount, added to the cost of building the aforementioned square metres at a rate of around 1,400 euros/m2, gives a total estimated investment in Can Rigalt of around 75 million euros to relaunch the sector. The outlay is being covered by Metropolitan House together with “an investor,” says Angulo.
In the coming months, Metropolitan will form a Compensation Board with the other owners of the land: Barça (35%) – which once bought the land for a failed Sports City that ended up in Sant Joan Despí -; L’Hospitalet City Council (25.5%); and other minority owners (7.5%). They will have to share the rights and charges of the operation between them, whose total estimated cost is around 90 million euros. Some 60 million of which correspond to the transfer of the electrical substation which, like Metropolitan and the City Council, will also involve Barça. Club sources have already certified to El Periódico their “commitment” to the transfer of the substation, although they admitted that they are waiting for “conversations, negotiations and updates of projects and budgets to be resumed to see what impact it has on the economic viability” of the club.
According to Angulo, whose multi-million euro investment was reported by ‘La Vanguardia’, there are four arguments that justify the need to transform Can Rigalt: the arrival of the Clínic “as a national project“; the “unworthy” electrical substation that bothers the neighbours; the need for affordable price housing for young people; and a regional park of eight hectares planned for the transformation.
Consulted by El Peródico, sources from the L’Hospitalet City Council admit the municipal interest in the future Clínic expanding some of its facilities in Can Rigalt and serving the north of L’Hospitalet, assuming that the UB lands on the Diagonal may be insufficient for the new health campus. Sources familiar with the operation confirm that the space for the future Clínic “is calculated to the millimetre” and transfer the possibility of it being expanded in Can Rigalt to the roof of “a project that the City Council must present”.
What is agreed upon is that the operation will definitely remove a new General Hospital from the area of L’Hospitalet, as already reported by El Periódico, which still has a reserve of land but which would be ‘covered’ by the Clínic. Sources from the Catalan Ministry of Health have already acknowledged that they are “studying various future options for relocating the General Hospital within” L’Hospitalet, although the outcome of the project has not yet been resolved.
2027, deadline for the transfer of the substation
Metropolitan House, a real estate developer specialising in residential projects for Officially Protected Housing (VPO) in the Barcelona area, has decided that it will promote the 378 VPO of the development of a total of 1,080 planned homes. “And the rest [the free market part] will be negotiated with a partner,” says Angulo.
The founder of the real estate developer also has a personal link with Can Rigalt, since when he arrived in Catalonia at the age of 14 he lived in the Pubilla Cases neighbourhood, where the sector is located. It is precisely in this area that the mayor of L’Hospitalet, David Quirós, has focused, finding an alliance with the Catalan Government to plan the comprehensive reform of the northern neighbourhoods integrated in the area known as Samontà, which will include demolitions in run-down buildings.
Regarding the deadline for having the remodelling of Can Rigalt ready, Angulo speaks of a horizon of about six years, around 2031-2032, three years before the forecast for starting up the new Clínic. What is on paper is the time limit for the transfer of the Collblanc electrical substation, a facility used to regulate electricity levels that until now was owned by Endesa: the start of the transfer is scheduled for before 2027, according to the current Electrical Network Plan approved by the Ministry for Ecological Transition. Of its current 36,000 m2, it would occupy around 8,000 m2 at another point in Can Rigalt after the change.
See original published news in EL PERIÓDICO
