A VALENCIAN BOOM



From today's www.valencialife.net:



"The fact that Valencia is to stage the Americas cup in 2007 has resulted in a boom of unprecedented proportions according to the latest findings by the Innovative Real Estate Advisors group. In their latest study, the group found that there are 31 hotels to be built in Valencia between now and when the City stages the Americas Cup in 2007, and this will increase the hotels in Valencia by 40% - mainly in the four-star category. The City has estimated that the Americas Cup will generate employment for 10,000 people and add some 1,500 million Euros to the Valencian economy, but many analysts have expressed fears that unless there is some sort of forward planning, the city could suffer a slump of unprecedented proportions by 2008."



VALENCIA 2004







The largest project is to rehab the harbour. Above is the harbour as it exists today, from the perspective of coming down the main boulevard from downtown Valencia in a low-flying helicopter. The building in the middle foreground is the historic "Casa de Reloj" (Clock House), and will be a public welcome/information center and VVIP reception area for the Cup. The "tinglados" sheds to the left of the Case de Reloj will become team bases.



In the shot above you are looking to the southeast, and in the background is, of course, the western Mediterranean. The main race course area (the "arena course" as I call it) will be in waters on the left side of the photo. The inner harbour (middleground) will become the America's Cup basin. A massive 800x80m channel and accompanying breakwater/groin is to be built out to the Med in the area between the long white building (left-background) and the left-most harbour crane. This will afford the race yachts a short ten-minute tow from their bases in the inner harbour out to the "arena course" instead of a longer tow out through the busy commercial harbour (right background).







Above is another shot of the present inner harbour, but looking back to the northwest from over the race course -- roughly the opposite direction of the photo above.



VALENCIA 2007







Above, from approximately the same perspective as the shot above, is a rendering of what the harbour is supposed to look like by 2007. The AC village (with the tower) is in the foreground, the team bases ringing the inner harbour to the right, a fanciful super-yacht berthing mooring ring in the background (wholly impractical and, therefore, unlikely to be part of the final plan), the media/broadcast center on the shore behind the mooring ring and slightly to the right, and the Casa de Reloj to the right of that.



A nifty setup if it all gets done and on time. There is much dredging and filling to be done in the meantime, and teams have been promised that the first bases will be ready in a year's time (April 2005). But as those who know have said, "compared to what they had to do in Auckland to build the viaduct, Valencia has twice as much work to do in half the time."