AttrACT, a new call for proposal looking for settlement opportunities in Lombardy Region

The new Call for proposal of new available settlement opportunities for potential investors is now open. From November 30^th on, the municipalities of Lombardy will be able to promote new opportunities to be published on the AttrACT platform (http://www.attractlombardy.it/en). The program, promoted by the Lombardy Region in collaboration with Unioncamere Lombardia and Promos, aims to enhance the regional territorial offer by the promotion in Italy and abroad, to foster the attraction of investments in Lombardy through the involvement of territorial stakeholders and finally to increase settlement opportunities by promoting them with direct actions in order to satisfy increasing requests of potential investors.

Three new permitted uses, in addition to those already covered by the Program, will be added this year: “education and training”, “residential for students” and “sanitary, health care and/or hospital facilities”. Three growing asset classes for which many players are already getting equipped, such as the Humanitas University with its new campus which integrates residences and research, or the University of Milan with Science for Citizen: 150 thousand sqm in the former Milan Expo 2015 area that will welcome more than 18 thousand Italian and foreign students, almost 2 thousand researchers and about 500 people as technical and administrative staff. And even Hines, that will reclassify with an investment of 50 million euros the former Consorzio Agrario di Milano, located near the Bocconi University, on a 20.000 sqm university campus with 700 beds.

Also data are confirming that the business trends are going towards the social needs. The Chamber of Commerce of Milano-MonzaBrianza-Lodi points out the increase of residential structures for students and aged people managed by about 500 companies in the sector in Lombardy, showing an increase of +5% in one year and +235% compared to the 148 of almost ten years ago. These trends are confirmed both by the annual report published by Cushman & Wakefield “Winning in Growth Cities” according to which Milan is the third city in the EMEA area, after Northampton and Paris, for investments in “senior housing” with 90 million euro invested, and by Assolombarda, which in its study about the internationalization of the University in Lombardy shows an increase of 2,4% of international students in 2016/2017 academic year compared to the previous year, with over than 12.800 presences.

AttrACT–Agreements for attractiveness, is a dynamic, versatile and up-to-date tool that combines the settlement needs of the market with the lands availability in the municipalities of Lombardy in a period when the saving of land consumption is encouraged and the regeneration of already urbanized areas are promoted. A farsighted program born in November 2016 with the approval of the implementation guidelines and finally started in 2017 with a public notice that lead to the admission of over 100 settlement opportunities coming from 56 municipalities, which are currently signing the Agreements with the Lombardy Region. From next month the AttrACT platform will open up to new settlement opportunities, allowing new investment projects on the territory, this will lead to the expansion of the offer and a tool shaped in favor of a territory constantly evolving.

We invite you to have a look at the http://www.attractlombardy.it/en platform where you can find all the information about the AttrACT Program and how municipalities can participate to the new Call.