Palma's Gesa building - From eyesore to international museum?

Ideas as to what to do with the office building, lauded for its "international" architectural style when Josep Ferragut came up with it in the 1960s, seem to come and go. The last two administrations from 2015 had their plans, but that is all they were.

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For town hall schemes to get anywhere, it would be preferable if the town hall owned the building. There is an agreement in principle between Endesa, the owner, and the town hall for an exchange - the Gesa building for some town hall plots. Bonet says: "We want to see if this principle of agreement is viable and then start taking steps." And a major step would involve turning the building into an "international museum".

The councillor insists that this is "realistic, ambitious and necessary". "The first thing that someone who arrives in Palma sees is a building in ruins. Everyone wonders why it is like this. It is due to negligence and the ineffectiveness of different administrations. It is an ambitious project because a large investment would be needed. That is why it will be essential that an international brand takes on this museum of modern and contemporary art, manages it and gives meaning to the building. It is a protected building and special restoration will be necessary. It would be transformational for the city and complement the other museums as well as private art galleries."

Realistic, says the councillor, but how long might reality take? "Before the end of the second period of administration and we are going to make sure that it is." The second period? The Partido Popular will be governing until 2031? "That's how it will be, we have no doubt about it. For some of the projects we have said that we are going to execute, four years will not be enough."