AA GGRREEAATT SSHHOOWWCCAASSEE OOPPEENN TTOO TTHHEE VVIISSIITTOORR : A GREAT SHOWCASE OPEN TO THE VISITOR

To visit Bilbao, in calm and leisurely fashion to stroll its streets, some of them straight, modern, and cosmopolitan, others narrow, charged with history and with a nontransferable typicality, is to open the eyes and see a rich and colouristic showcase of a commerce that spreads invitingly over the centre of the city and that is open to all possibilities: ranging from the most popular articles to the most luxurious and exclusive, including products from the traditional Basque market and the most avant-gardist at international level in design and technology. A combination no less attractive than stimulating and enjoyable.

With more than 6,000 commercial establishments, which account for 1,750 million euros per year in sales and generate more than 15,000 jobs, in a friendly and attractive urban area of fully human dimensions, in a context that is accessible and integrated in terms of mobility via one of the most modern metropolitan networks in the world, replete with extensive central parking areas, the whole of Bilbao is a great urban shopping centre open to the visitor COMMERCIAL BILBAO IN THE BILBAO OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM

In Bilbao the future is already reality. After years of relative decline, following the long decades of economic preeminence in the national and European spheres, Bilbao has been experiencing, since the early 90's, a process of rebirth, is again finding itself, discovering itself. Like a reborn phoenix, it rises again from the search for new economic activities and from an intensive collaboration between public and private agents. Thus there arise numerous emblematic projects that together shape a progressive turn to an intelligent development of the city in which culture, knowledge, advanced services, leisure, and tourism take the lead over other, more traditional activities.

Following the thrust of the Guggenheim Museum, the urban fabric of Bilbao embraces the production of a cluster of prestigious architects who progressively give corporeity to a whole set of emblematic and multiplier projects, such as the Euskalduna Conference Hall, the Pasarela Zubizuri, the new terminal at the Airport, the new Alhóndiga (Corn Exchange), the underground Metro, the restored Tranvía (tram system), the Isozaki-Atea gate, the revolution, and so on, which make the city of Bilbao, in the words of Christian Hauvette (winner of the National Prize for Architecture in France) a "city of haute couture". Retailing, traditionally the leader in the urban service sector, now becomes part of a synergic complement with other intensive activities in knowledge and innovation, in a rich and complex urban economic framework. A new role for a new world-class city. A new business for a cosmopolitan, surging city that reinvents itself to become capital of the European Atlantic Rim of the century now opening. A new way of understanding the retail business in collaboration and union with the other services.

THE FACT IS THAT IN THE BILBAO OF THE 21ST CENTURY THERE ARE MANY BILBAOS...

It's not a question of entering here into the long and at times dramatic history of the y since it was founded by López de Haro seven hundred years ago. But it might well be mentioned that after each rebirth, Bilbao happens to preserve within itself the best of its rich past. Hence Bilbao is a multifaceted, pluralistic city. That preserves within itself many Bilbaos. The financial Bilbao coexists with the same old popular Bilbao, the erudite eighteenth-century Bilbao with the modern and contemporary. Thus there is an artistic and cultural Bilbao, a ludic Bilbao, a bohemian Bilbao, a gastronomic Bilbao, a sports-oriented Bilbao, and so on.

And so Bilbao continues to be that economic and financial centre that was forged between the 19th and 20th centuries, whose banking system and stock exchange are today its most prominent expressions.

The dynamic Feria de Muestras (Trade Fair) and the Superpuerto del Abra (Abra Superport), to take two examples, provide testimony to the almost proverbial entrepreneurial spirit of the Biscayne capital since its very origin. Its gastronomy covers the full range of tastes and appetites, from the most innovative and modern restaurants to the most traditional, in the best sense of the term, whose identity finds its roots in an almost ancestral culinary memory.

Bilbao's rich cultural offering includes the spectacular Guggenheim Museum, its flagship, but its true breadth is much greater: the recently refurbished Museum of Fine Arts, the Euskalduna Auditorium, and the Arriaga Theatre provide an inexhaustible supply of activity in their respective fields.

And there, in short, we have that great commercial Bilbao: Based on and complementing these multiple and attractive aspects, between bridges and museums, between cultural and professional events, between leisure and knowledge, between the physical dimension and the new digital dimension of the city, the commercial Bilbao of the 21st century takes shape as a network of innovative and professional urban establishments capable of satisfying the needs, the yearnings, and even the most diverse caprices: from the simplest and most timeless to the most sophisticated and current.

THE COMMERCIAL HEARTOFA GREAT METROPOLIS: A WORLD-CLASS CITY Our commercial Bilbao might be seen as the nerve centre of a great metropolis, i.e. , which is built around the lower and middle stretches of the River Nervión: from its estuary, with Santurtzi and Algorta as reference points, to Galdakao, and even to Llodio in Alava. Overall, a million inhabitants have their cultural, administrative, and commercial nucleus in a few square kilometres occupying boths shores of the Nervión: the Old Quarter and the Ensanche (the area in which widening began).

Two parts of the city, on opposite sides of the river, making up a dense area full of contrasts: the Old Quarter with its rich retail tradition, with deep roots in the past but clearly and manifestly given to renewal; the Ensanche has from the outset been an area of modernity, always kept up to date, and today it thrusts forward irresistibly into the new century.

It is in this heart of the city--synthesis of past, present, and future--that Bilbao may be perceived as a world-class city, capital of the Atlantic Rim, adorned by the constructions of Gehry, Foster, Pelli, Isozaki, Calatrava, Sterling, Legorreta, Soriano, and many more. Here we find the heart of Bilbao shopping, to which thousands of local inhabitants, Basques, Spaniards, and citizens of the entire world come to do their shopping. Sometimes for everyday items, sometimes for exceptional. But always in an environment of quality, variety, and outstanding service.

THE OLD QUARTER:700 YEARS OF COMMERCIAL TRADITION, ALIVE AND CONTEMPORAR Y

Historical commercial centre, and origin of the Town, today this area is an Old Quarter, absolutely removed from the paralysis or nostalgic recollection of a past dead forever, with a simple overall dedication: to business, monuments, history, living space, leisure, and, above all, shopping.

With more than 500 shops in a space that is secluded but easily accessible for the passer-by, it is a singular yardstick for all Europe of a high and balanced commercial concentration in an open pedestrian space, superbly warm and accommodating.

Here the most modern shops and those of the oldest lineage coexist in harmony, with a rich, exhaustive, and professionalized supply embracing textile products from the most traditional to the most avant-gardist, furniture both classic and of the latest design, gift jewellery and gems of high value, clearly affordable flowers, and electronic, optical, and computer equipment. In addition, the traditional products of the land, which occupy a place of preference in the historical Ribera Market. A market on the banks of the Estuary, symbol of the city's dedication to trade, which in itself constitutes a mark of identity of Bilbao's Old Quarter and, with nearly 120 stalls distributed over more than 1,500 m2, is the biggest indoor market in and one of the biggest in Europe. The commercial thrust of the Old Quarter nicely adds to the attractiveness of a space replete with hostels, with its typical "seven streets" full of taverns of great character, its carefully preserved urban environment, the charm of its pedestrian space, its monuments and history (the Cathedral of St James, the Church and Bridge St Anthony, the rigidly structured New Square), the ludic-cultural attractions of the Ethnographic Museum, and that jewel of the lyrical and theatrical arts that is the Arriaga Theatre.

A modern shopping centre in a historical environment, with 700 years of economic, political, and religious change, as well as, by no means least, change in daily life. The popular character of a city that knows how to value its past in order to address itself to the future.

THE ENSANCHE:MODERNITY IN A

COSMOPOLITAN COMMERCIAL SPACE

Associated with the city's expansion in the second half of the 19th century, the Ensanche was an urban space suited to the industrial and financial capital that the Town had become at national level and as part of Europe. It could be defined as an exclusive commercial space at the city's institutional and economic core. Here, on either side of the Gran Vía, the city's main street, in the presence of many of the institutional, economic, and financial symbols of the old Bilbao--the Stock Exchange, the Bank of Spain, the BBVA, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, the National Exchequer, etc.--is the most carefully preserved, most select commercial concentration in the city: the department stores, prestigious international firms dealing in haute couture, jewellery, perfumery, and design, making up an exclusive shopping area, the city's most cosmopolitan economic dimension.

In the immediate area, the extension of the Gran Vía and its opening onto the

Plaza via the pedestrian street Ercilla and the select Rodríguez Arias; and toward the Estuary by Colón de Larreategui, weave a broad urban network of more than 1800 high-level commercial establishments, which make up the central offer of goods and services in the metropolitan environment of Greater Bilbao.

It is in this urban business area, which lives with the intensity proper to the centre of a great metropolis, but in which there continue to be places for tranquillity, getting- together, and relaxation, that the Bilbao of the 21st century projects its new icons over the rediscovered Estuary: from the symbolic Palacio de Congresos (Conference Hall) and the Música Euskalduna to Uribitarte and the Calatrava passageway passing by the emblematic Guggenheim and the new changes envisaged in Abandoibarra. Nowhere else can we find a greater concentration of symbols of the new Bilbao, or a better way of understanding commerce in collaboration and union with the other services.

INDAUTXU:

At Indautxu the retail business is of singular importance, perhaps owing to the high number of shops, or perhaps to their quality. Long experience, going back to the middle of the last century, as well as personalized treatment, young entrepreneurs, and prestigious international trademarks, are all aspects of the Indautxu phenomenon.

Our shops are careful about their image. Sidewalks have been widened, some areas have been pedestrianized. A fine transport system includes the Metro, , and Bizkaibus. There is free parking. These are some of the things that are really putting Indautxu on the map.

At Indautxu we find sophistication, lively entertainment, tradition, modernity. And not only in the shopping area. Leisure activities, with cinemas, hotels, cultural affairs, and so on invite you to explore its streets and lose yourself in its attractions.

A SUSTAINABLE CITY: BUSINESS AND LIFE IN THE URBAN COMPLEX

But our Bilbao is not only that intensely typical and at the same time modern business heart of the metropolis. The urban continuum of the municipal complex makes up a civic environment that is intensely alive at all points. Via a broad fabric of 3000 local shops, as well as a solid network of supermarkets and municipal markets, a daily mode of life has taken shape in which there is a trend toward minimizing the need to travel to the downtown area and in which the various districts of the city--from to , from to Basurto--are becoming areas of urban life with their own importance, with their own social and economic dynamism, and these together make up a mesh of integrated, live, and diverse urban realities.

This commercial equilibrium between a dynamic, attractive city and a practical, commercially efficient residential environment, in which high mobility is afforded by the public transport network, marks a sustainable city, an integrated space of high quality, a place in which to live intensely from day to day and to enjoy a truly enviable quality of life. AN OPEN CITY: COMMERCE AND ACCESSIBILITY

Finally, our commercial Bilbao is an open city. Being a mercantile nucleus from the outset, Bilbao has always been a city of hospitality. Traditionally engaged in overseas trade via the El Abra Port, and today open to the world via the symbolic dove of the airport terminal designed by Calatrava, its development as commercial heart of Greater Bilbao, with which it has generated an urban continuum of one million consumers, has been simultaneous with the creation of a broad and fluid network of surface transport--both road and rail--that converges at the heart of the city in a swift and convenient manner, with central stations and parking lots. Today this connection has been modernized with the addition of the subway network designed by Norman Foster. A new artery of activity and life that ensures accessibility to, and mobility within, the commercial heart of metropolitan Bilbao; and that with its aesthetic qualities and its functionality constitutes a new symbol of this Bilbao, open to the visitor, the tourist, the inhabitant, and notably the end customer, who plays a leading role in the business of the city. COMMERCIAL BILBAO: A JOB FOR EVERYONE

The Commercial Bilbao of the 21st century is the work of everyone; a live reality to be constructed from the collaboration and solidarity of multiple agents and public-private sensibilities. A transformational synthesis impelled by the institutional leadership of City Hall, which, with the support of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and of the Basque Government, may establish a framework of joint work and reflection with the commercial firms, represented as active sectorial agent in Bilbao Dendak; and with the consumers themselves--citizens, visitors, tourists--the ultimate reason for commerce itself. An exciting task, accomplishment of which will enable commerce to play an active role as motor behind sectorial and urban transformation in this new Bilbao, the same city as before but one that now looks to the future.

SOME USEFUL ADDRESSES

Bilbao Dendak: Gran Vía 13. 48001 Bilbao. Tel.: 94.470.65.00. Fax: 94.443.50.78. Web: www.bilbaodendak.com Lan-Ekintza Bilbao: Uribitarte 6. 48001 Bilbao. Tel.: 94.420.53.00. Fax: 94.420.53.13. Email: [email protected] Web: www.bilbao.net/lanekintza Cámara de Comercio de Bilbao: Gran Vía, 13. 48001 Bilbao. Tel.: 94.479.57.73. Fax: 94.422.00.61. Bilbao Turismo: Plaza del Ensanche, 11. 48009 Bilbao. Tel.: 94.479.57.73. Fax: 94.479.57.71. Web: www.bilbao.net/bilbaoturismo Ayuntamiento de Bilbao, Área de Salud y Consumo: Luis Briñas, 14. 48013 Bilbao. Tel. 94.420.49.63. Fax: 94.420.49.73. Email: [email protected] El Corte Inglés: Gran Vía, 7 y 9. 48001 Bilbao. Tel.: 94.425.35.00. Fax: 94.425.35.13. Agrupación Bilbao Centro: Alda. Urquijo, 30 - 1º - Dpto. 8 (portal interior). 48010 Bilbao. Tel.: 94.416.66.66. Fax: 94.415.49.10. E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.bilbaocentro.com Asociación de Comerciantes del : Plaza Nueva, 10 - 2º Izda. 48005 Bilbao. Tel.: 94.415.16.33. Fax: 94.416.81.76. E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.cascoviejobilbao.com Asociación de Comerciantes del Centro Comercial Bidarte: Avda. de Madariaga, 24. 48014 Bilbao. Tel.: 944.752.121 Fax: 944.763.782. Web: www.bidarte.com Asociación de Comerciantes de Santutxu: Médico Antonio Eguiluz, 1 Entreplanta. 48004 Bilbao. Tel. y Fax.: 944.125.039. E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.santutxubilbao.com Deusto Bizirik Agrupación Comercial: Blas de Otero, 9 B. 48014 Bilbao. Tel.: 944.479.924. E-mail: [email protected] Asociación de Comerciantes del Barrio de , Bilbao La Vieja y Zabala: Plaza de la Cantera, 5 - 3º. 48003 Bilbao. Tel.: 944.153.690 Fax: 944.205.369. E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.comerciantesdesanfrancisco.com Asociación de Comerciantes de Txurdinaga: Txomin Garat, 4 (trasera). 48004 Bilbao. Tel. y Fax: 94.473.41.57. E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.txurdinaga.com Asociación de Comerciantes de Otxarkoaga: Gárate, 2 - 2º B. 48004 Bilbao. Tel.: 94.473.22.81. E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.euskalnet.net/otxarcomercio Asociación de Comerciantes del Mercado de la Ribera: Ribera, s/n. 48005 Bilbao. Tel.: 94.415.70.86 Fax: 94.479.06.95. Web: www.mercadodelaribera.com Asociación de Comerciantes de Rekalde - Rekalde Bihotzean: C/ León de Uruñuela, 2 - 2ª planta, puesto 17. (MERCADO DE REKALDE Chacinería San Roque, pto. 17). 48002 Bilbao. Tel.: 94.444.91.37. Asociación de Comerciantes del Distrito 2 - Auzoa Berritzen: C/ Matiko, 33 bajo (Matiko Kirolak). 48007 Bilbao. Tel.: 94.446.60.08. E- mail: [email protected] Web: www.distrito2.com Centro Comercial Zubiarte: C/ Lehendakari Leizaola nº 2. 48001 Bilbao. Tel.: 94.427.73.80 Fax: 94.427.76.40. Asociación de Comerciantes de Zorroza: Estrada de Zalbidea, 18 – Bajo. 48013 Bilbao. Tel.: 610.338.588.