The Italian Defence Ministry is considering selling some of its property assets to fund restoration and maintenance work of more suitable military premises.
From early medieval shipyards to Renaissance castles, some of Italy’s most interesting historic buildings could soon go under the hammer. The news comes from MIPIM, the world’s largest international property fair, which takes place in Cannes, France, every year. During the fair’s latest edition, which ended last Friday, Italian Deputy Defence Minister Giulio Crosetto presented a selection of former Army, Navy and Airforce properties that the Ministry is considering selling.
The thousand-strong list include places such as Venice’s Arsenale, the enormous 12th century shipyard that was at the heart of The Most Serene Republic’s naval power; Brindisi’s Castello Aragonese, a late 15th century fortress that sheltered the Puglia port from invaders for many centuries; or the Forte Cavour, a 19th century fort conceived by Napoleon and built by the Piedmontese government, which overlooks the sea on the Unesco-designated Palmaria island.
An August 2008 act allows the Italian Defence Ministry to sell, lease or exchange part of its enormous property portfolio to fund barrack restoration and maintenance work, or new builds. Some buildings that no longer meet military requirements may be assigned to “territorial Bodies, State-controlled companies or private entrepreneurs, in exchange for substitute infrastructures built in peripheral zones, provided that they are well connected with the road and railway network,” according to a Ministry statement.
Other buildings, which “fail to be used in full for the functions that are performed inside them,” could be entrusted to management companies, “compatibly with the contemporary performance of the institutional Defence functions that will keep on being carried out within their context.”
But the most august properties “may be assigned to the ‘highest bidder’, requesting in exchange the execution of works for the modernization or reorganization of the infrastructure that will remain among the current assets of the Ministry of Defence.”
These top buildings will be sold by public auction, and it will undoubtedly take deep pockets to secure them. For many of them, buyers will also have to abide to Italy’s stringent listed building regulation.
Even so, many of the properties have an immense residential and tourism potential, as attested by the large number of visitors that flocked to the MIPIM stand.
“The Ministry’s proposal to rationalise and valorise its property portfolio has drawn interest from many investors and professionals, who visited the stand to ask for more details over the opportunities that the Defence properties can and will offer,” stated a Ministry release. “This success found confirmation in the number of users visiting the Defence Ministry’s property website, and the many requests which have already been received by the Information office.”
So much so, in fact, that some heritage and conservation bodies are alarmed by the Ministry’s move.
“We learned from the press that, like a conscientious property developer, the Defence Ministry took a stand at MIPIM, the world’s largest property fair, to present an attractive catalogue of about a thousand buildings no longer in military use and therefore ready to be made profitable” stated conservation body Italia Nostra. “We didn’t hear the voice of the Culture and Heritage Minister—whose responsibility it is to protect those properties no longer suitable to military function—posing the problem of the buildings’ cultural interest and forbidding the sale of those among them that are declared of ‘particular interest as relics of the identity and history of public institutions.’
“We don’t believe an offer to the international market, via the Cannes exhibition, to be suitable to State-owned properties which have just been declared to be no longer suitable for military purposes and which, to a great extent, are part of our cultural heritage. And though this offer doesn’t mention to the sought-after foreign buyers the harsh conditions imposed by Cultural Heritage law, we don’t doubt that the Cultural Heritage Minister will enforce those provisions, even though he has been until now absent.”
That said, the sales may not be as imminent as Italia Nostra fears and the Ministry’s MIPIM presence suggests. Before moving forward with the auctions, the Ministry is going to “proceed to a more suitable valorization of the premises intended for the market, allowing them to have a different intended use or a greater building potential, by entering into agreements with the Municipalities where such premises are located; it will see to an estimate of the valorized premises and determine the relative market prices in compliance with the law; and it will put such premises on the market having recourse to specific public notices of sale, exchange or management concession.”
Bureaucratic red tape being what it is, these steps are likely to take some considerable time. Meanwhile, interested parties can contact the Defence Ministry for additional information here.
