Ramblas del Plata

Ramblas del Plata is a mixed development project designed and intended for the southern Buenos Aires waterfront in Argentina, on the site of the former Boca Juniors Sports City.[1][2]

The 71.6-hectare lot started as a reclaimed area in the Río de la Plata in the 1960s, originally intended as a stadium project that did not push through. For over three decades, the area changed hands and concepts several times until the Buenos Aires City Legislature approved a public-private partnership contract in 2021 between the Buenos Aires Government and IRSA.[3]

After a judicial case that was settled in 2023,[4][5] IRSA changed the project's name to Ramblas del Plata and started the construction work in 2025. The partnership agreement stipulated that 71% of the area will be used for a public park adjacent to the Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve, while 29% will be used for residential, office, and commercial purposes.[6]

History

Boca Juniors Sports City (1962-1991)

The land was transferred to Club Atlético Boca Juniors through National Law 16,575, passed on October 29, 1964.[7] with the commitment to build a sports city that would include a stadium for 140,000 spectators,[1][8]

The project was spearheaded by Alberto Armando, who began filling in the Río de la Plata on September 3, 1965, to create a series of artificial islands covering approximately 40 hectares.[9][10]

The development included soccer fields, tennis courts, basketball courts, swimming pools, an amphitheater for 1,200 people, a café, a restaurant, a drive-in movie theater, and a stadium that would serve as the venue for the 1978 World Cup. The construction was to be financed through the sale of bonds and raffles, but successive economic crises, inflation, and management and administrative problems prevented it from coming to fruition. The project remained unfinished, and the club never managed to complete it.[11]

In 1989, the National Congress passed Law 23,738, which deemed the original contract fulfilled despite the fact that the works had not been completed, and authorized Boca Juniors to sell the property.[12]

Santa María del Plata (1991–1997)

In the early 1990s, the Santa María del Plata company acquired the land from Club Atlético Boca Juniors for $22 million.[13][14]

In 1997, IRSA (Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anónima) acquired the land and the master plan, forming the company Solares de Santa María S.A. for its development.[8]

Development attempts (1997–2021)

For more than two decades, IRSA submitted multiple projects to develop the property under the name “Solares de Santa María,” none of which prospered due to lack of legislative approval or incompatibility with current zoning regulations:[15]

  • In 2010, IRSA signed an urban development agreement with the City Government that included the transfer of private land for public parks and $50 million for the development of the Rodrigo Bueno neighborhood and improvements to the Lamadrid settlement. The Legislature did not approve the project.[14]
  • In 2016, a new agreement was established whereby Solares de Santa María would cede 292,079 m2 for public use and $35 million for social urbanization. It was also not approved by the Buenos Aires Legislature.[14]
  • Successive bills were presented to the Legislature on several occasions (files 1647-J-2011, 2078-J-2011, 3283-J-2012, and 3738-J-2016) without being passed.[15]

Costa Urbana Project

Legislative approval (2021)

On July 19, 2021, the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, under the administration of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, signed an urban development agreement with IRSA for the development of the project, renamed “Costa Urbana.” The agreement established the transfer of approximately 50.8 hectares (71% of the property) to the city government for the creation of a public park, while IRSA could develop buildings on the remaining 20.6 hectares (29% of the total), with a buildable area of approximately 895,000 m2.[16]

The bill underwent a two-reading process in the Buenos Aires Legislature. On August 19, 2021, the first reading was approved. The Legislature approved the agreement by a majority vote in the second reading on December 2, 2021.[17][18]

Law 6476 was published in the Official Gazette of the City of Buenos Aires on December 22, 2021. The law modified the zoning of the property (designated “U73 - Public Park and Costa Urbana Development”).[19]

On March 10, 2022, Judge Aurelio Luis Ammirato of the 10th Contentious, Administrative, and Tax Court of the City of Buenos Aires declared the urban development agreement null and void in the context of an injunction filed by the Observatory of the Right to the city.[20][21][22]

The Government of the City of Buenos Aires and IRSA appealed the ruling. On March 6, 2023, Chamber IV of the city's Administrative and Tax Appeals Court, composed of Judges María de las Nieves Macchiavelli Agrelo and Laura Alejandra Perugini, overturned the lower court's ruling.[23]

The judges considered that the legally relevant step had been the legislative approval with its corresponding public hearing.[24][25]

Architecture competition for the public park

In December 2022, the Secretariat for Urban Development of the City Government launched the “Buenos Aires and the River - Costa Urbana Public Park National Ideas Competition.” The ideas competition was carried out in cooperation with the Central Society of Architects, with the Argentine Federation of Architectural Entities as sponsor.[26][27]

On March 15, 2023, the jury announced the winner as the “BA Rioparque” project, presented by the PALO arq studio in collaboration with WEST 8.[28][4]

Ramblas del Plata

Following the favorable court ruling in 2023, IRSA renamed the project “Ramblas del Plata” and commissioned McCormack y Asociados to draw up the general master plan.[29][30][31]

The master plan consists of a buildable area of 126,000 m2 divided between residential towers, office blocks, and commercial areas, with building footprints up to six stories in height. The development also comprises a 1.4 km coastal promenade, which connects the development to the adjacent Puerto Madero area. At the end of 2024, IRSA began actively marketing lots through a mixed system of direct sales and barter transactions.[32]

References

  1. ^ a b Anguita, Eduardo; Cecchini, Daniel (27 May 2021). "La Ciudad Deportiva de Boca, el proyecto faraónico de Alberto J. Armando que casi quiebra al club y terminó en ruinas". Infobae (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  2. ^ Fernández, Belén (28 February 2025). "IRSA sigue vendiendo lotes del megaproyecto en la ex Ciudad Deportiva de Boca". El Cronista (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  3. ^ "Ramblas del Plata: una experiencia de articulación público privada". El Tribuno (in Spanish). 20 November 2024. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  4. ^ a b "Resolución 28-SECDU/23 – Concurso Nacional de Ideas "Buenos Aires y el Río – Parque Público Costa Urbana"". Boletín Oficial de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (in Spanish). 21 March 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  5. ^ "Los detalles del parque público Costa Urbana". Clarín (in Spanish). 31 March 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  6. ^ "IRSA avanza con Ramblas del Plata: así es el mega proyecto de torres de lujo en Puerto Madero". El Economista (in Spanish). 1 February 2025. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  7. ^ "Ley 16.575 – Donación de tierras al Club Atlético Boca Juniors". Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina (in Spanish). 11 January 1965. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  8. ^ a b Wille, Germán (8 February 2025). ""¡Es ahí!": el día en que un boquense imaginó levantar sobre el agua un terreno que será el barrio más lujoso de Buenos Aires". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  9. ^ "La Ciudad Deportiva". Historia de Boca Juniors (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  10. ^ Aira, Carlos (27 December 2021). "De la Ciudad Deportiva de Boca Juniors al Dubai porteño: la curiosa parábola de la Costanera Sur". Radio Gráfica (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  11. ^ Mascareño, Pablo (7 May 2020). "Ciudad Deportiva de Boca: la increíble historia de un proyecto faraónico que se convirtió en fracaso". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  12. ^ "Ley 23.738 – Modificación de la Ley 16.575 (Donación al Club Atlético Boca Juniors)". InfoLEG – Ministerio de Justicia y Derechos Humanos de la Nación (in Spanish). 9 October 1989. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  13. ^ "Qué se construirá: aprobaron el proyecto inmobiliario en la ex Ciudad Deportiva de Boca y la Costanera Sur". La Nación (in Spanish). 22 March 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  14. ^ a b c Cieri, José Luis (7 April 2023). "Mega inversión de USD 1.800 millones: cómo es el proyecto de espacio público y desarrollo inmobiliario en la ex Ciudad Deportiva de Boca". Infobae (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  15. ^ a b Baldiviezo, Jonatan; Koutsovitis, María Eva; Battino, Liana; Godoy Arroyo, Myriam; Caivano, Alejo (7 July 2021). "En pandemia más negocios inmobiliarios: se viene un "Puerto Madero 2" en la Costanera Sur". Observatorio del Derecho a la Ciudad (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  16. ^ "En qué consiste el polémico proyecto de construcción de torres de lujo en Costanera Sur". iProfesional (in Spanish). 19 August 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  17. ^ "Con 2600 inscriptos, este viernes comienza la audiencia pública por el proyecto de IRSA". Perfil (in Spanish). 13 June 2024. Archived from the original on 2024-06-13. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  18. ^ Pintos, Patricia; Astelarra, Sofía, eds. (2023). Naturalezas neoliberales: conflictos en torno al extractivismo urbano inmobiliario (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: El Colectivo. p. 265.
  19. ^ "Ley 6476 – Convenio urbanístico y normas especiales para la Urbanización U73 "Parque Público y Urbanización Costa Urbana"". Boletín Oficial de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (in Spanish). 21 December 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  20. ^ "La justicia declara nulo el convenio entre IRSA y Larreta por Costa Urbana". Tramas (in Spanish). 12 March 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  21. ^ "Costanera Sur: la Justicia frenó la construcción de las torres y ordenó convocar a una audiencia pública". Página/12 (in Spanish). 10 August 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  22. ^ D’Eramo, Antonio (12 March 2022). "La Justicia frenó la construcción de las torres en Costanera Sur y se convocó a una audiencia pública". Noticias Argentinas (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  23. ^ "Luz verde: la Justicia revocó un amparo contra la construcción de un barrio en la ex Ciudad Deportiva de Boca". Perfil (in Spanish). 8 March 2023. Archived from the original on 2023-03-08. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  24. ^ Brunetto, Santiago (10 March 2023). "Costanera Sur: luz verde para que IRSA construya sus torres sobre la costa". Página/12 (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  25. ^ "Cómo será Costa Urbana, el mega proyecto de un barrio y un parque que construirán en la ex Ciudad Deportiva de Boca". Observatorio Metropolitano del AMBA (in Spanish). 21 March 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  26. ^ "Parque Público Costa Urbana – Concurso Nacional de Ideas Urbanas" (PDF). Boletín Oficial de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (in Spanish). 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  27. ^ "Lanzamiento del Concurso Nacional de Ideas para "Buenos Aires y el Río – Parque Público Costa Urbana"". Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata (in Spanish). 5 December 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  28. ^ "El proyecto ganador para el parque público Costa Urbana". Clarín (in Spanish). 31 March 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  29. ^ "Costa Urbana". McCormack Arquitectos (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  30. ^ "Urban Coast (Mixed Uses)". IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones S.A. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  31. ^ "IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones S.A. – SEC Filings (Form 6-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  32. ^ Fernández, Belén (28 January 2025). "IRSA ya vendió los primeros lotes de su megaproyecto en la ex Ciudad Deportiva de Boca". El Cronista (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 March 2026.
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