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URBANISMODesafortunadamente, este mecanismose abandonó hacia finales de los años 60s-en México nunca se ha implementado formalmente-,entre otros motivos, por que laconstrucción de servicios e infraestructuradejó de ser una obligación del desarrollo y setransformó más bien en una oferta electoraly en un impuesto.Una cantidad importante de los recursosque obtiene la ciudad, provienen del desarrolloinmobiliario. El impuesto predial, lascontribuciones de mejoras, la inversión enmedidas de mitigación, o los recursos quegenera la transferencia de potencial son algunosde estos ejemplos, pero no se ha logradoque lo recaudado sirva precisamentepara mejorar la infraestructura y calidad devida, ni de la ciudad, ni de la zona en dondesucede el desarrollo. Ésta es una permanentepreocupación y demanda de los ciudadanosque ven levantarse nuevos edificios frentea sus propiedades, sin que se mejoren susservicios.La falta de recursos -como ya lo dijeesuna oportunidad, y algunos de nosotrosestamos ya proponiendo proyectos sustentablesy planteando nuevas fuentes definanciamiento, para intervenir zonas conpotencial de desarrollo y necesidades de regeneraciónurbana. Será necesario rediseñary transparentar los mecanismos de gestión,pero sobre todo, acabar con las complicidadesy la corrupción que hoy tiene a las ciudadessumidas en un círculo vicioso de abandonoy deterioro creciente.Implementar estas iniciativas requierende un trabajo muy intenso de consenso entrela sociedad y sus autoridades, para queen los próximos años podamos definir quétipo de desarrollo va a sostener la economíay el futuro de nuestras ciudades.No hacer nada, ya no es una opción.How much is a city?A land’s value is determined by what can bebuilt on it: land’s use, infrastructure and accessibilitycome together to define its potentialand possibilities of development, and this mix isthe most simple explanation to one of the mostknown and repeated real estate arguments inthe history: “location”.A city’s value can be also determined. Forseveral years, even centuries, the investmentswere in infrastructure and buildings, whichidentify and define them, and their most valuableareas are those where real estate developmenthas found the ideal conditions to express,but in most of the cities the accumulated valuehas not been used at the maximum all alongthis time, to create the condition and generatethe essential resources to route their futuregrowth.And destiny has reached us. The areaswhere the projects of the new buildings had theguarantee of the best development conditionsare practically over, there are a few useful andattractive lands left, their infrastructure andservices are flooded, and there are more necessitiesin the suburbs in permanent expansion inthe city than possibilities of creating new areaswith conditions for development, or even for regeneratingthe consolidated ones.A lot of resources are necessary to buildthe infrastructure that development requires,and the traditional financing sources for thecity-or the capacity and goodwill to implementoriginal measures-seem to be over. But the lackof resources is, at the same time, an opportunityto take advantage of the most precious wehave and we have built for a long time and effort:the own city’s value.A city’s value has got several expressions,and the quality of life that it offers to us dependson its capacity to create wealth and welfare.In Venice, for instance, the big mansionsand palaces aligned all along their romantic canals,are the best attribute of the millenary citynowadays, and the attraction for the millionsof visitors annually, without new constructionssupporting its economy. In other latitude, at theBig Apple, as New York is known, the possibilityof building in just some square meters theimpressive skyscrapers that will host the corporativeoffices of the most powerful companies,or luxury apartments for the millionaires,is the magnet that attracts the investors andrepresents one of the most important origin ofresources for the city.Between these extremes-a city which biggestvalue remains on the fact that the existingcannot be modified due to its high accumulatedpatrimonial value (Venice) and another onewhere imagination, modernity and technologyare the limits to build new developments (NewYork)-, one of the most contemporary financingmechanisms of infrastructure and publicspace improvement is incubated, somethingthat could offer viability to the renovation andfuture of our cities: “Value Capture”.What is Value Capture?It is a new initiative of real estate planning andmanagement that seek to reconnect the sustainableurban development to the infrastruc-ture financing in order to improve the quality oflife in the city. It is a mechanism described asa Virtuous Circle, where the construction of infrastructurecreates or improves the access toan area; the access increases its development’spossibilities; and development generates valueadded and the value can be captured, preciselyto finance new infrastructure or improve theexisting one in the area, closing then the virtuouscircle.One of the most recent of this mechanism’suse that I fortunately was pleased to meet andstudy is already in process of implementationto finance a new line of regional train betweenthe cities of Dallas and Fort Worth in Texas,USA-known as the Cotton Belt Corridor- wherethe uses of land and the development potentialin the towns that will be connected through thisnew system of transport are being reconsideredand improved, precisely to increase their valueand, with that value added, getting the resourcesto finance the new mobility project.Is it really a new instrument?The utilization of the mechanisms of ValueCapture starts in the decade of the years 30sin the United States, when developers wereseeking financing to build new transport linesor to open ways accessing their properties, byusing the value that these ones acquired withnew projects of urbanization and development.This value added was used as a guarantee toget the resources for building the works: A virtuouscircle.Unfortunately, this mechanism was abandonedthrough the end of the years 60s-it hasnot been formally implemented in Mexico-,among other reasons, because the constructionof services and infrastructure was not anobligation of the development anymore and itbecame overall an electoral offer and a tax.An important quantity of the resources thatthe city gets, come from real estate development.The land tax, the contributions of improvements,the investment in measurementsof mitigation or the resources generated bythe potential transfer, are some of these examples,but there has not been success whenraising money to improve the infrastructureand the quality of life, nor the city’s, nor theareas’ where the development is happening.This is an ongoing worry and demand from thecitizens who see new buildings rising in frontof their properties without an improvement oftheir services.The lack of resources-as I said- is an opportunity,and some of us are already suggestingsustainable projects and new sources of financingto operate on areas with potential of developmentand necessities of urban regeneration.It will be necessary to redesign and reveal themechanisms of management, but overall, tofinish with the complicities and the corruptionthat currently sink the cities into a vicious circleof growing abandon and damage.Implementing these initiatives requires ahard work of agreement between society andauthorities, so that in the following years wecan define what kind of development is goingto support the economy and the future of ourcities.Doing nothing is not a choice anymore.•28www.inmobiliare.com