






The Challenge
Business Model and Repositioning for Hospitality use of a Heritage protected building
2018, San Fernando, Buenos Aires Province (Argentina)
The Agency of Administration of State Property (AABE) is the owner of Palacio Otamendi, a building protected by Heritage on a plot of 5.000 m2 with buildable capacity close to 15.000 m2.
Palacio Otamendi is located at the city center of San Fernando, in the northern corridor of the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA). This town combines an industrial area of medium scale businesses, a vibrant commercial activity of proximity and is close to the delta of the Paraná River, with access to leisure and nautical activities.
AABE hired THE INNOVA ROOM for making a study of the potential of the hotel business of Palacio Otamendi as well as well as the compatible uses, in order to optimize the investment and the available buildability.
How We Did It
Project objectives
- Preserving the heritage value of Palacio Otamendi and its auxiliary buildings.
- Maintaining the access to the areas of public use within the development.
- Contributing to the development of the city of San Fernando as a proximity tourist destination.
- Transferring the property to the investor group for a period of 30-60 years under the legal form of Real Surface Law
THE INNOVA ROOM developed an analysis of the potential of the existing buildings onsite, identified the most attractive uses to be incorporated in the future development and analyzed the best mix of stakeholders and roles to address the implementation and operation of the project. In conclusion, a Business Model and Repositioning of the complex was defined for achieving the success with the future Hospitality operation.
Key points and conclusions
A) Hospitality Business
We defined a business model with mixed hosting capability:
- Inside Palacio Otamendi as the main unit into the complex there will be located 6 rooms, 2 meeting rooms and the food and beverage outlets.
- On the other hand, the newly developed accommodation building will hold a variable number of apartments (15-45), to be incorporated under a rental pool scheme.
B) Public Access and commercial areas
To meet with the requirement of reserving publicly accessible spaces, we proposed a ground floor area of commuter shops and a development of three main buildings forming a contemporary “cloister”.
C) Mixed uses: residential and coworking
Dentro de un mismo módulo estructural y arquitectónico se plantearon tres edificios para albergar estos usos complementarios; éstos continúan con el tejido urbano ajustándose a las alturas y dimensiones de la parcela y edificios colindantes.
Within the same structural and architectural module, we proposed three buildings for these additional uses; these units follow the density and composition of the urban context, adapting their heights and dimensions to the surrounding buildings.
Results
We organized an attractive project in terms of urban scale, economical sustainability and social integration.
Source of images: The Innova Room