The role of foreign-owned businesses in the revitalisation of historic centres in three Catalan towns

Abstract

Some derelict historical neighbourhoods in Barcelona, in Lleida and in Tortosa experienced the foreclosures of many native-owned small businesses in the early 1990s. The same areas witnessed a rather sudden upsurge of foreign immigrant-owned businesses since the late 1990s. Using scarce but valuable unpublished retail censuses data of the historic centres of the three towns, this paper contends that foreign entrepreneurs do contribute to urban regeneration there, through the creation of new small retail and service businesses. The paper concentrates on el Raval, a neighbourhood in the historical centre of Barcelona, where recently created foreign-owned businesses were keeping up with retail and services in the midst of the Spanish economic crisis. These types of businesses are not panacea, since many could still break out of its limited mode. Yet urban planners from the Government of Catalonia and from local governments could rely more on the stamina of foreign entrepreneurs.