Bogotá will say goodbye to the old El Campín to inaugurate a modern stadium and a cultural and leisure complex in the surroundings

Bogotá is going to undergo a radical transformation in one of its nerve centers. A public-private project plans to build in El Campín and its surroundings, in the neighborhood of Teusaquillo, a new football stadium with a retractable roof and a cultural and leisure complex that will include an auditorium for 2,500 people, home of the prestigious Philharmonic Orchestra of Bogotá. The space, which will have restaurants, shops and sports spaces, will also house the Colombian Sports Museum and will have inside the exclusive changing rooms of Santa Fe and Millonarios, the two teams that play in this field. The work will take place in a depressed area, perceived right now as unsafe by citizens.

The El Campín stadium was built 75 years ago on land donated to the city by an influential family of the time, the Camachos. Hence, the complex bears as its first name that of one of its members, Nemesio Camacho. In this time the field has been remodeled up to five times, with draft modifications. But none in such a radical way as this. It means turning an impassable space into one of the most attractive places in the city. His model is the transformation that Real Madrid has made with the Santiago Bernabéu and its surroundings.

The work will cover 167,000 square meters in the heart of Bogotá. It will be done through a PPP, a public-private partnership. The land is publicly owned and all investment is private. According to the contract, the successful bidders will have 29 years to recover the investment. The initial amount to cover the costs of the previous technical and legal studies has been two million dollars. The project, which started five years ago, is in a validation process, in which a third party, an independent company, has to verify its viability. After that it will go out to adjudication.

The Mayor's Office hopes to implement it before the end of this term. "Without a doubt, it is one of the largest projects in Colombia," explains Blanca Durán, director of the District Institute of Recreation and Sports of Bogotá, who defines this process of urbanism as "impressive". "It's going to generate a lot of added value to the city. This is a total urban renewal project," he continues.

The El Campín stadium has become obsolete and does not meet any technical standards. It will be built from scratch. But it will be done in stages so that the competition runs its course and football does not have to stop. During the 55 months that the works will last, the eastern stands will be worked first, and then to the south and north. Finally, the western one. A state-of-the-art stadium will be built with many advantages that it does not have today. The stands will be very close to the grass, in the European way, and it will be a 100% covered place, with a retractable roof. The chairs will be comfortable and there will be more than 240 boxes available around the field. The construction will be carried out by the multinational Lanik, a company with more than 40 years of experience in the design and manufacture of roofs in large buildings and infrastructures. Within his portfolio are works as extraordinary as those of the Caja Mágica in Madrid or the impressive Dynamo stadium in Moscow.

The main partners of the project have come together under the name of El Campín Cultural and Sports Complex. There are the companies Concéntrico, Prociviles, Quebuenacompra, Sintonizar, 911, Lealtis and B2Media, among others. The product they have developed is called Sencia. The director of the operation, Edgar Cardona, maintains that it is a total transformation of a space currently underused through art, culture and sport. "We need all citizens to be able to empower their city and enjoy it," explains Cardona. At the moment, thousands of people pass daily around the El Campín stadium, but none have reason to stay. It is about turning it into a fundamental meeting point of the city.

One of the great attractions of Sencia is the inclusion inside of an auditorium for the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the most awarded and recognized in Latin America. The auditorium space, which will feature the most avant-garde acoustic technology, will have around 22,900 square meters. "We seek that the soul flies through music and expressions of art, as they are a fundamental part for the development of people. Here we will have the best scenario to achieve it," reads the project documentation. The facilities will have a larger room for 2,500 people, an alternate room for 700, and spaces for artists, offices and dressing rooms.

There will also be table and tablecloth restaurants and fast food areas for visitors attending a concert, a football match or a philharmonic recital. "We believe that the gastronomy of our city must become important for tourism. We want to have those spaces so that people can come and enjoy a pepitoria, a marranita, or any other kind of Colombian cuisine," adds Cardona.

As a great novelty that is obvious, it will house the first Egamer gym in the city. A space for lovers of Esports, digital sports, can train and compete with video consoles and computers. In addition, there will be a hotel with 120 rooms to accommodate those who come to concerts or football, and an emergency medical care service of the Red Cross. Artists and athletes, the developers explain, always want to know how far they are from a hotel, the airport and a health post. This place has all three things very close, so it is considered a Triple A space.

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The urban project for the El Campín Stadium

"The first thing we are going to generate is employment when we have to build the stadium and each of the works. We will have to work with many companies that will have to energize their industries to be able to develop what is necessary for a quality infrastructure," continues the project manager. It is, he says, a tourist hub that regenerates a historic stadium such as El Campín to put it at the service of Bogotá and its citizens.

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