The city of Milan has launched a €2 bn international tender to convert part of the vast Expo 2015 site into a global tech and science hub and tax-free zone.
The tender features a masterplan design contract and 50-year site concessions.
Arexpo, the owner of the 250,000 m2 area in Italy’s economic capital, is presenting the plan to interested parties in Milan and in London this week. Bidders have to express their interest by 6 February, must submit their application by 28 February and then come up with an initial proposal within 90 days. The most economically viable plan will be chosen and the contract will be signed before the end of the year, with work planned to start in 2018.
'Our goal is to create in the Expo area a project the like of which has never been realised in Italy and that will be compared to the best urban regeneration schemes on a global level,' said Giovanni Azzone, president of Arexpo, a company co-owned by Italy's department of Finance, the Lombardy region and the municipality of Milan.
Interested parties have to design a masterplan for a Science Park, build it and then manage it for up to 50 years. It is a first time that this sort of project financing, a mix of design tender and site concession, is attempted in Italy, following the example set by the regeneration of the Olympic Park in London built for the 2012 Games.
The plan is in two stages: first the definition of the Masterplan for the area, including technical and financial details, and the business plan. The second stage includes the development of the plan, the building of the structures and then the day-to-day management of the site. The site concession will be awarded by Arexpo for a maximum of 50 years, and it requires the payment of ground rent to the company.
The Expo 2015 area covers 1 million m2, but three quarters of that will be developed directly by Arexpo to create a new campus for Milan's State University and the Human Technopole project, a biomedical research complex.
