The project, which entails an investment of €15.9 million, plans to convert the Moll de Gregal into one of the most unique restaurant areas in the city, covering a surface area of 24,000 m2.
The work will begin in early 2023 and will be completed in the summer of 2024, coinciding with the America's Cup sailing competition.
Diversity, quality and a quintessentially Barcelona spirit are the main attributes of this new restaurant model, which will be home to 14 different culinary proposals ranging from market to avant-garde cuisine
The Gastronomic Balcony will be a vast sustainable walkway which is environmentally-friendly and open to the sea and the Nova Icària beach, to which there will be a new access point.
High-quality and diverse cuisine with a quintessentially Barcelona spirit, which can be enjoyed in an incomparable setting. These are the main attributes that will define the Gastronomic Balcony, the restaurant space that will be opened in Port Olímpic in late summer 2024. Barcelona City Council, through Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM), is due to invest €15.9 million in the complete renovation of the Moll de Gregal, where the new restaurant area will be located.
In total, work is planned for an area spanning more than 24,000 m2. The work is ahead of schedule and is due to start early next year. It is hoped that the works will be completed by the summer of 2024, coinciding with the America's Cup sailing competition in the city.
Eleven restaurants and three gourmet spaces will make the Port Olímpic a new benchmark for the city’s gastronomy, forming a unique restaurant hub which is designed to bring Barcelona’s people closer to the sea.
The new restaurant model is based on establishments that are committed to healthy and sustainable food and that offer complementary proposals, ranging from market cuisine to avant-garde gastronomy with the aim of reaching a local public with a broad and diverse profile. All of this will make Port Olímpic a new emblematic location designed to allow citizens to enjoy Barcelona’s coastline through a representative sample of its finest gastronomy.
The choice of future restaurateurs, which will be made through a competition to be launched after the summer, will take into account issues such as the quality and style of cuisine and product, the design and ambience of the premises and the restaurant's sustainability measures, among others.
A gastronomic promenade overlooking the sea
The Gastronomic Balcony is more than the sum of its fourteen gastronomic venues. It will be a singular, unique and coherent space. The Port is set to undergo a complete redesign which will see it further integrated into the space, offering an innovative experience through its modern architecture and transmitting a sense of dynamism and safety.
Light and transparency will be two key elements in its interior spaces, where materials such as glass will facilitate visual communication with the sea and port activity. In addition, the premises on the upper level will be located on a cantilever over the sea which overlooks the Nova Icària beach, further increasing the feeling of openness and proximity to the coastline.
The renovation of the outside space will follow a fundamental premise: to create an unobstructed setting that allows citizens to stroll comfortably to the shores of the Mediterranean. To this end, various works are scheduled that will improve connectivity between Port Olímpic, the beach and the city. The new gastronomic centre will lead directly to the Nova Icària beach, while three vertical axes equipped with stairs and lifts will improve accessibility to the city from all parts of the Port.
Sitting areas and viewpoints will also be built along the promenade, giving citizens an opportunity to take a break, relax and enjoy the views.
The concessions of the current restaurateurs ended on 3 April 2020. Since then, they have had temporary contracts, the termination of which corresponds to the start of work on the new spaces, which will begin in early 2023. The coming months will also see the tendering process that should guarantee competition in the sector, while ensuring the continuity of existing jobs.
Until the inauguration of the new gastronomic spaces, the employees who are guaranteed a job, regardless of the new contract holders, will have access to Barcelona Activa’s professional guidance services and a complete training plan that includes different pathways within the hotel and catering sector. The aim is to promote the professional development of these individuals and to facilitate the updating of their knowledge in accordance with current market needs in positions such as waiters, kitchen assistants or head chefs. Language skills, customer service, purchasing management, barista techniques and culinary innovation are just some of the disciplines included in the 1000 hours of training.
A sustainable space committed to the people of Barcelona
Sustainability is one of the strategic axes of the Port Olímpic transformation project. So much so that, in order to boost the energy savings of the future facilities of Port Olímpic’s Gastronomic Balcony and adapt them to the climate emergency, four large photovoltaic pergolas will be installed. Besides generating energy from renewable sources, these will also provide shaded areas that will improve the wellbeing of visitors to the area.
Specifically, more than 1,600 photovoltaic modules will be installed with an output of 650 kW and the capacity to generate 890,000 kW of electricity per year. This is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 250 households. The electricity generated by these four large photovoltaic panels will be used by the Port Olímpic and could, in the future, supply other consumers in the surrounding area.
In line with this sustainable approach, the four restaurants on the upper level of the Moll will have green roofs. Besides naturalising the environment and enhancing biodiversity, these bioclimatic elements will provide thermal and acoustic insulation to the premises.
A Port Olímpic committed to the city and the generation of activity in the field of sailing, the blue economy and the restaurant industry
Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM) has been promoting, on behalf of Barcelona City Council, the transformation of Port Olímpic since March 2020.
In this new era, Port Olímpic aims to be a space committed to the public in which, under criteria of sustainability, nautical activities co-exist with the generation of economic activity, mainly linked to the sea, the blue economy and restaurants.
Change management is already underway. Among other actions, the reinforcement and consolidation of the Dic de Recer breakwater has already been completed and work is currently underway on the opening of a new access point to the Moll de Mestral wharf, which will connect the facilities with the Vila Olímpica neighbourhood. In parallel, at the end of the summer, work will begin on the configuration of the first blue economy centre in Barcelona: a project that will be located on the Moll de Mestral wharf and in the premises under the Dic de Recer breakwater, a space that will become a new viewpoint looking out to sea.
You can find the video of the presentation here
