Ponce Servicios

Coordinates: 18°0′56.952″N 66°36′43.632″W / 18.01582000°N 66.61212000°W / 18.01582000; -66.61212000

Ponce Servicios

Ponce Servicios, in Ponce, Puerto Rico, looking Northwest
General information
Status In Service - In Use
Type Originally, marketplace;
Today, offices
Architectural style Brutalistic
Location Ponce, Puerto Rico
Construction started 1980
Completed 1981
Opening 1981
Renovated 2007
Cost $10,000,000
($26.3 million in 2016 dollars[1])
Owner Government of the municipality of Ponce
Height
Architectural 60 ft (18.3 m)
Technical details
Floor area approx 200,000 sq ft (18,581 m2)
Lifts/elevators 5
Design and construction
Developer Government of Puerto Rico

Ponce Servicos is a municipal building located Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is the largest building in the municipality in terms of footprint area and the only one that occupies an entire city block.[2] Its architecture is Brutalistic. The structure was built in 1981 as a way to provide a modern, air-conditioned, structure to the merchants and shoppers of the historic but aging Plaza de Mercado Isabel II building. On its opening day the building was named the Juan Bigas Plaza del Mercado building, in honor of Juan Bigas Moulins, the Ponce businessman by that name.

In 2007, when the Art Deco Isabel II building was restored and renovated, this building—then called the Juan Bigas building—was vacated but sat unused until 2010, year when the Government of Puerto Rico transferred the structure to the Ponce Municipal Government. That year (2010), the Ponce municipal government started plans to recondition the Juan Bigas building. The Ponce Municipal Government reopened the building in October 2013 as a municipal building offering a mix of municipal services and called it "Ponce Servicios" (Ponce Services).

Location

The structure is located at the grid formed by the Guadalupe, Salud, Estrella and Mayor streets. Its coordinates are N 18.01582 W 66.61212.

History

From 1863 to 1981, the Ponce market ("Plaza de Mercado") operated at the Isabel II Plaza de Mercado building. Due to deterioration of that 1863 structure, a new structure was built to house the farmer's market merchants. In 1981, and for the next 26 years, the Ponce market operated out of a new building at the grid formed by the Guadalupe, Salud, Estrella and Mayor streets, just two blocks east of the historic Isabel II Plaza del Mercado building. The new building, at the time known simply as "Plaza del Mercado de Ponce" (later to become the Juan Bigas building), was inaugurated in 1981 to replace the aging, but historic, Plaza del Mercado Isabel II building.[3]

Meanwhile, the Plaza del Mercado Isabel II was restored starting in 1980 -including the addition of air conditioning for the first time- and opened, again, in 1989. Its new tenants, however, were not the former fruits-and-vegetables market tenants, but tenants such as the Puerto Rican multi-department stores Pitusa, who opened a store there in 1984 when a section of the building they were to occupy was already complete.[4] While the Juan Bigas building continued to host fruits-and-vegetables tenants, the Isabel II structure came to host the Pitusa department store plus various handcrafts shops.[5] After the 23 years (1984-2007) that the two buildings operated concurrently, Pitusa left the Isabel II location, their former space was remodeled and, in August 2007, the Juan Bigas building shopkeepers moved back to the historic Isabel II building leaving the Juan Bigas building unoccupied.[6]

Being not a municipal property but a state property, on June 28, 2010, Governor Luis Fortuño signed Senate Resolution 191, transferring ownership of the Plaza del Mercado de Ponce Juan Bigas building to the Ponce Municipal Government.[7]

Municipal services building

On 7 April 2011, the municipal government announced it would invest $10 million to remodel the Juan Bigas building and turn it into a municipal services center, dubbed "Ponce Servicios", hosting various municipal services offices.[8] The remodeling of the old Juan Bigas building to be used for municipal government services was to occur at a cost of $6.828 million.[9] A 27 July 2011 news report stated work on the Juan Bigas building would commence in October 2011 at an expected cost of $15 million.[10]

A 26 June 2013 news report indicated that renovations had been completed and the first two floors of the facility would reopen by the end of July 2013. The agencies due to occupy the structure were listed as: the Oficina de Permisos (Office of Permits), Ordenación Territorial (Office of Territorial Planning), Vivienda Municipal (Office of Municipal Housing), the Archivo Histórico de Ponce, Office of the Federal Ryan White Program and the Banco Municipal (Municipal Bank). The facility was to be named "Ponce Servicios".[11] The building reopened in August 2013 as "Ponce Servicios", hosting various municipal dependencies.[12]

Cost and size

The building cost $10 million to build in 1981. It is the building with the largest footprint in Ponce.

See also

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Community Development Project. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  2. ↑ En el olvido: Así se sienten vecinos de Plaza Juan Bigas. Jason Rodríguez Grafal. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. Retrieved 16 November 2013.
  3. ↑ Con inyección de $15 millones: Intentan reactivar polo del Ponce Centro. By Jason Rodríguez Grafal. Periodico La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico.
  4. ↑ Neysa Rodriguez Deynes, et al., Brevario sobre la historia de Ponce y sus principales lugares de interes. 1991. p. 163.
  5. ↑ MundoBoricua List of Ponce Attractions by the Director. Accessed 4 May 2016.
  6. ↑ Tras multimillonaria renovación: Afloran fallas en la Plaza de Mercado. Carmen Cila Rodríguez. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. ca. February 2011. Accessed 4 May 2016.
  7. ↑ Summary of the Week: June 28 to July 4, 2010. By Jason Rodríguez Grafal. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. Week of June 28 to July 4, 2010.
  8. ↑ Aprueban Fondos para Ponce Servicios. 07 April 2011. El Nuevo Dia. Retrieved 3 May 2011.
  9. ↑ Mayita ofrece su mensaje de logros. El Sur a la Vista. Ponce, Puerto Rico. 12 October 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
  10. ↑ A punto de caramelo obras en Juan Bigas. Jason Rodríguez Grafal. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. Year 29, Issue 1443. 27 July 2011. Page 10. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
  11. ↑ A punto la mudanza a Ponce Servicios. Jason Rodríguez Grafal. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. 9 June 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  12. ↑ Alcaldesa de Ponce Inagura Proyecto Emblematico Ponce Servicios. Ronaldo Ortiz Dominicci. Periodico "El Señorial". (A publication of the Ponce Municipal Government.) Issue #10. August 2013. Page 3. Retrieved 4 October 2013.
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