Catalinas Norte


Catalinas Norte is an important business complex composed of nineteen commercial office buildings, in two sections, and occupied by numerous leading Argentine companies, foreign subsidiaries, diplomatic offices, and a hotel. It is located in the Retiro and San Nicolás wards of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

History

The Catalinas Warehouses and Pier Company Ltd.

, a German Argentine businessman and legislator, created The Catalinas Warehouses and Pier Company, Ltd. in 1872 for the purpose of building a pier, a wharf, and an office building. The acquired lands were east of the Paseo de Julio.
The area was known as the "Catalinas Incline," and was so named for the Church of Santa Catalina of Sienna. This church also served as the namesake for Seeber's new firm. With the purchase of more land in the quarter of La Boca, the Retiro lot was named Catalinas Norte, and the La Boca lot, Catalinas Sur.
The firm obtained a municipal contract for the construction of the Catalina Docks. Needing a large and steady supply of soil to level and grade the hitherto flood-prone site for the wharf, Seeber bought land in the then-desolate northwest end of the city with the intent of hauling soil to Catalinas for land reclamation. Enlisting workers mostly from Entre Ríos Province, these latter established a neighborhood there in 1887.
These docks became the northern and southern points of entry into Puerto Madero upon its inaugural in 1897. Catalinas Norte was later chosen as the site for the Hotel de Inmigrantes, a facility built to temporarily house the over 100,000 annual immigrant arrivals, and completed in 1911. Following the construction of the modern Port of Buenos Aires from 1911 to 1925, both Catalinas docks fell into disuse, and October 31, 1945, the Catalinas Warehouses properties were sold to Yatahí, S.A. A lot facing Córdoba Avenue was, in turn, resold in 1949 to a State enterprise created during the administration of Juan Perón: Atlas, S.A. This entity built the Alas Building, and an adjacent lot was used to build the Peronist ALEA publishing house.
The bulk of the land, totaling 39,110 m², north of these buildings continued vacant for decades. A further 24,200 m² were owned by Otto Bemberg and Company, which opened the Retiro Park there in 1939; the rest was later mostly used as parking lots.

Early plans

The underutilized state of an area so close to the financial and administrative center of the city prompted the Municipal Department of Planning in 1956 to draft an urban renewal plan for the district. This envisaged the construction of a highway that would extend from Tigre to La Plata, as well as rezoning Catalinas to allow for the construction of office buildings of up to 70 floors. This district, per these plans, would ultimately be known as the "Catalinas Gateway" to Buenos Aires.
The City Office of Regulatory Planning further specified, in its revised master plan of 1958, that construction of skyscrapers in downtown Buenos Aires would be prohibited, and limited these to the Catalinas district. Mayor Hernán Giralt presented a project to the City Council for the development of "an area of hotels, an office and retail center, a location for shipping companies and air travel, a recreation center and a large area for parking," and on February 3, 1960, the Argentine National Congress authorized the City to purchase land north of Catalinas for the purpose. The Catalinas Norte Commission was established in 1961, but a subsequent political and economic crisis caused the project to stall and ultimately be discarded.

The final draft

The coup d'état that toppled President Arturo Illia in 1966 led to the dissolution of OPRBA. Mayor Eugenio Schettini instructed the Municipal Department of Architecture and Urbanism to design a new, simpler plan that would limit permits for office high rises. A municipal ordinance in 1967 parceled the land in accordance with the 1958 master plan, and lots were sold to Aerolíneas Argentinas, Conurban S.A, IBM, Sideco, Kokourek S.A, SEGBA, Sheraton, and the Argentine Industrial Union. Retiro Park was bulldozed, and the Buenos Aires Japanese Gardens therein were relocated to their present, Palermo Woods location. The MCBA, in turn, retained four areas, opened three parking lots, and built two promenades: Carlos Della Paolera and Ingeniero Butty.

Development

Ground was broken on the first buildings in the complex, the Kokourek Group's , and the Sheraton Buenos Aires Hotel & Convention Center, on June 26. Work began on the for the UIA in 1970, and on the in 1972. The Conurban Tower was inaugurated in 1973, Carlos Pellegrini in 1974, and Catalinas Norte, in 1975. Work then began on the in 1976, and in 1979, the. These high rises, while not the first in Buenos Aires to incorporate elements of the International Style, became the first to do so as a group. SEPRA Arquitectos, a prominent Argentine architectural firm, designed the Sheraton Hotel and the Catalinas Norte Tower.
The implosion of the dictatorship's economic policies in 1981 led to a suspension in new developments for the area, however, as well as a sharp decline in new construction as a whole. A subsequent economic recovery that followed Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo's 1991 Convertibility Plan prompted renewed interest among developers, and from 1995 to 1998, the Consultatio Group developed the twin towers, and IRSA, . The final addition to the complex during the 1990s was the. The Postmodern high rise, designed by César Pelli, was completed in 2001 and at 137 meters, would become the tallest in the district.

Expansion to the south

The flurry of new construction also led to the redevelopment of the southern end of MCBA's redevelopment district. The Bouchard Tower and Loma Negra's, both designed by SEPRA, were built between 1991 and 1995. The, designed by Pelli for the now defunct Banco República, was completed in 1996. The , opened in 2001, and Bouchard Plaza, designed by Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum for the La Nación news and publishing group, opened in 2004.

Sale of last remaining lots

The complex, which by 2004 included 15 buildings totalling over 540,000 m², was in the news during 2009 and 2010, when Mayor Mauricio Macri obtained the City Legislature's approval to sell the remaining three undeveloped lots. The combined land is zoned to house up to 120,000 m² of new office space, and the city sanctioned the future construction of high rises of up to 50 stories, and 150 m in height. The third and last lot was sold on November 18, 2010, to Banco Macro. The other lots had been sold to IRSA and Consultatio earlier in the year, and the combined sales netted 386 million Argentine pesos, or us$6,866 per m².
Projects approved for these lots during 2011 include the Macro Tower, a headquarters designed by César Pelli; the Consultatio Tower by Beccar Varela & Associates; and the 29-story IRSA headquarters, designed by Miguel Baudizzone and Jorge Lestard. BBVA Banco Francés, the fifth largest bank in Argentina, announced in 2013 that it would relocate its headquarters to the Consultatio Tower upon the building's completion. One last potential zone for future development, a 5,694 m² property alongside the Alas Building, remains in use as a parking lot.

Overview

Existing and Approved Commercial Real Estate in Catalinas Plaza
BuildingCompletedfloorsHeight in mArea in m²
Edificio Alas19574114199,0001,065,000
Sheraton Buenos Aires1972239162,000667,000
Torre Conurban1973259526,217282,000
Torre Carlos Pellegrini19743112135,000377,000
Torre Catalinas Norte19752910934,000366,000
Torre Madero1980289633,767363,000
IBM Tower1983198531,000334,000
Torre Bouchard19943011036,025388,000
Torre Fortabat1995238517,000183,000
Edifício República1996229135,369381,000
Torre Alem Plaza19983212838,000409,000
Torre Catalinas Plaza19982911534,000366,000
Edificio Laminar Plaza19992072.535,720384,000
Edificio Microsoft2001125715,800170,000
Torre BankBoston20013313745,000484,000
Torre Bouchard Plaza20042610065,000700,000
Torre Consultatio/BBVA20153315576,000817,000
Torre Macro20162813035,500382,000
Torre IRSA2017299955,500597,000