The construction of Imperia's tourist harbour, which had been interrupted for years, is now underway. Yesterday, the Municipality (delegated by the Liguria Region to the management of the maritime state property) signed the 65-year concession assigning to its in-house company, Marina di Imperia, the task of completing and managing, also with the support of private investors, the port of call, intended to host boats and yachts from 5 to 90 metres. The overall investment needed to complete the project amounts to about 159 million euro but, with VAT and additional charges, it will come close to 200 million.
The financing of the works, according to the plan approved by the city council, will not be based on bank credit, but supported by the alienation of berths and land works and the entry of one or more private parties in the construction and management of areas of the port. The port will consist of 1,235 berths from 5 to 90 metres, of which 782 will be for tourist boating and 453 for local boating. The heart of the project will be the Sea Hall, which will house a five-star hotel with a private dock, wellness centre and panoramic terraces. Next to the hotel will be prestigious residences, police accommodation, a mooring tower, shops, car parks and garages, green areas, spaces for shipbuilding, a petrol station, recreational facilities and a pedestrian promenade.
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The new port will be powered, to a large extent, by sustainable energy, thanks to a photovoltaic system. Air conditioning will be provided by heat pumps and solar panels, and there will be innovative wastewater and stormwater management. The timetable envisages completing the works within seven years. In parallel, public urbanisation works will be carried out, with an estimated value of 12 million euro.
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The Imperia port project has a long gestation period that began in 1981, with the establishment of Imperia Mare, the first public company called upon to manage the existing state concessions in a unitary manner. The operation led, in the following years, to the expansion of the number of berths, which rose from 350 to 700. In 1994, the first vision of a large marina was drawn up, which materialised in 2006 with the birth of Porto di Imperia, a mixed capital company that obtained a 55-year concession and started work the following year. However, the completion of the works was blocked by complex judicial events and the subsequent bankruptcy of the concessionaire company.
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From 2014 to date, the port has been managed by the Municipality of Imperia, through the in-house company Go Imperia. In 2018, however, the municipal administration embarked on a complex process of regulatory, planning and administrative reconstruction, which led to the resolution of hundreds of disputes, the renewal of urban and state property titles, the drafting of a new economic-financial plan, and the approval of a new completion project. Today, discounts of up to 50 per cent are available for the repurchase of berths currently occupied with expired titles.
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Added to all this is the successful conclusion of the complex forfeiture of the works by the State Property Office.
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