14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez/Olea Gallardo, Havana, 22 March 2024 — Plans to restore iconic Galiano Street in Central Havana seem serious this time around, at least for the impoverished block between Virtudes and Conde Cañongo. On Thursday, the local government publicly solicited proposals for the “recovery, maintenance and restoration of the facades” of the buildings in this area.
It is a highly unusual but understandable move given that the area is part of the so-called Galiano Street Comprehensive International Revitalization Cooperation Project, financed by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).
The buildings whose facades would be restored are numbers 201 to 211 on the east side of the street and 202 to 212 on the west. Not included is number 210, which the official press release describes as being in very bad condition.
In a visit to the site on Friday, 14ymedio learned that the building, whose address should be 210 since it is on the even side of the street but which is mistakenly numbered 211, is in ruins though it is still inhabited on the ground floor.
The building, whose address should be 210 since it is on the even side of the street but which is mistakenly numbered 211, is in ruins though it is still inhabited on the ground floor
The area is known for its nightlife — bars such as Cumbaking, 212 and V&S are located there — and as a hotbed of fistfights, drug dealing and prostitution.
The stretch includes precarious apartment buildings such as those at numbers 201, 204 and 205, which has a state-owned store, La Cancha, on the ground floor, that has been rented out to small private vendors, popularly known as merolicos.
Another building, number 208, retains its original Sevillian tiles, remnants of a more glorious past. Built in the 1930s, it once belonged to José Alvarez Ruiz, a businessman whose initials can still be seen on the facade of the building. Housing took up the upper floor; a loan and jewelry business occupied the lower floor. In the 1940s, the building housed the Cuban branch of Remington Rand, an American company that manufactured sewing machines and typewriters, and imported a wide range of office supplies.
Nationalized by the state after the Cuban revolution, the striking building had had several uses — these included the headquarters of the Comittees for the Defense of the Revolution and a library — until the roof collapsed in 1999.
The announcement posted jointly by the municipal government and AECID on the official website indicates that proposals must include a separate budget, in Cuban pesos, for each of the building facades on both sides of the street.
Similarly, they point out that restoration of facades must include “all required actions such as carpentry, lighting, ironwork and any others needed to restore the facades to their original state.”
The construction period for each facade may not excede four months “from the delivery of the client’s letter of authorization letter to the bidder.”
According to a AECID document signed on June 30, 2021, the agency foresees a total of seven such projects on the Island at a cost of of 3.5 million euros
The Galiano Street restoration project, sponsored by AECID, is nothing new. State media announced it with great fanfare back in late 2022, even reviving the thoroughfare’s old name: Avenida de Italia. The goal, as reported at the time, was to convert the area into “an innovative urban district and a reference for the principles of the circular economy, digital culture and creativity and the enhancement of products from supply chains.”
On Thursday, the same day the competition was announced, the street was also referred to by its old name on the website of the Information Technology Fair, which is taking place in Havana. State media reported a plan to install “broadband telecommunications infrastructure using fiber optic cables along three kilometers of Galiano Street — from Reina Street to the Malecón — for the benefit of 109 properties, with an average of twelve customers per property.”
According to a AECID document signed on June 30, 2021, the agency foresees a total of seven such projects on the Island at a cost of of 3.5 million euros.
AECID’s budget for what was billed as a “comprehensive revitalization of Galiano Street, preserving its urban and architectural values and enhancing its commercial, recreational and cultural character” was originally 312,000 euros, with a May 2023 completion date. Neither the Spanish agency nor its Cuban partner has provided an explanation for the delay in plans.
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