DFactory Barcelona reaches full occupancy and moves forward with its expansion project
Historically, the Barcelona Free Trade Zone has always been one of the main economic areas of the country and a benchmark in industrial innovation. With the transformation of its industrial estate into District 4.0, the Barcelona Free Trade Zone Consortium (CZFB) has turned it into a technological innovation pole with the aim of becoming a reference center worldwide that brings together companies linked to the new industry and advanced logistics.
He DFactory Barcelona It is the heart of this District 4.0. “It is the symbol of the place where we decided to create the landing platform for industry 4.0,” he says. Pere Navarro, special delegate of the State in the Barcelona Free Trade Zone Consortium. Currently, it already has 42 companies installed, all of them dedicated to the development and use of technologies that define and characterize industry 4.0: robotics, sensors, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, cybersecurity, nanotechnology, 3D printing, augmented, virtual or mixed reality…
The space encourages collaboration, synergy and alliances between their companies. “In DFactory, companies do not lock themselves in cubicles, but share spaces and technological resources, they challenge each other to innovate, improve their portfolios, increase turnover and therefore create quality work, creating economic and social progress, which is the main mission of a public company such as CZFB,” explains Navarro.
This management model has allowed identify potential joint lines of research and perform matching of the different scientific-technological capacities of the different actors involved.
Currently, DFactory has 17,000 m2 of surface and has already reached 100% of its capacity. For this reason, the CZFB is planning an expansion to move to 60,000 m2 by the end of 2026, becoming one of the most ambitious initiatives in the field of industry 4.0. “The companies that are installed, a total of 42, are growing at high speed and are telling us that they need more space. That is why an expansion is necessary,” says Blanca Sorigué, the general director of the CZFB.
An ambitious expansion in the industry
It is estimated that the expansion will mean a approximate investment of about 50 million euros and that will generate the creation of 1,500 direct jobs and up to 5,000 indirect jobs. The project includes the construction of four new buildings: the Cubo building (1,100 m2), building A (24,370 m2), building B (11,640 m2) and a services building (2,300 m2).
“In this phase there will also be manufacturing processes, laboratories, R&D&I, robotics, topics related, for example, to health or food and technological agriculture, etc. Barcelona is a very important capital in the health sector and we want to attract companies in this industry” Navarro advances.
The Cubo building will house important cultural, artistic or musical events in the city of Barcelona, as well as international events related to industry 4.0 and the new economy, as well as presentations, conventions and conferences organized by the ecosystem companies themselves.
For their part, buildings A and B will have four floors each, a ground floor for manufacturing and three with laboratories, technology centers and offices. It is also intended to attract technology companies dedicated to the health sector and technological agriculture. Climate change is driving new forms of cultivation related to eco-agriculture, which require high technological development.
Finally, the expansion of DFactory Barcelona also includes a building D to provide services to the established companies, such as a restaurant area or different spaces for physical activity.
Barcelona, global technology center
The DFactory Barcelona is the core of District 4.0 of the Free Trade Zone, located in a Privileged area between the port and the Barcelona airport and just 10 minutes from the center of Barcelona.
Currently, it has 6 million square meters where nearly 300 companies are manufacturing and developing their activity in the industry and logistics sector. The forecast is that the expansion works will be completed at the end of 2026 so that at the beginning of 2027 it can welcome new companies. All of this is the result of the firm commitment and strategic vision of the Barcelona Free Trade Zone Consortium, which seeks lead the industry transformation towards a digital industry.
DFactory is the core of the new District 4.0, which aims to attract large global corporations seeking hubs technologies in Europe, and better integrate with the urban and metropolitan environment of Barcelona. For Sorigué: “District 4.0 is a benchmark and what we want is for it to not only be a 4.0 district for Barcelona, but for the entire world, make it a world reference”.
District 4.0 has a conducive environment for collaboration and the development of solutions to lead industry 4.0. Navarro highlights: “District 4.0 has fertile ground to be a global benchmark because Barcelona is a city connected to the world, that creates and attracts talent, with a great entrepreneurial ecosystem, with top-level technology and international development centers, world-class universities and business schools…”.
