The Panamanian Government is now paying $28.9 million a year in rent and, like other renters in the Panama City market, is looking to invest that money in acquiring some property of its own, in the form of a Government City.
This is not the first time that a centralized government offices are under serious consideration. Back in 2001, the government was all ready to appropriate the Albrook airport facilities for the construction of a Government City. Annual government rents totaled over $18 million at the time, and the government paid $400 thousand for a feasibility study that suggested the move.
The proposal was not warmly accepted by pilots, companies, users and airport workers who had just been dislodged from Punta Paitilla three years earlier to make way for a highway and a shopping center.
This time, the centralized office locations are planned for the areas of Calidonia, Marañón and Curundú and would also take over the 5,000 meter grounds of the former U.S . embassy on Balboa Avenue.
According to La Prensa, the 69-year-old historic U.S. embassy would be demolished and another Panama City tower erected. As Demetrio Papadimitriu, Minister to the Presidency, says, the government does not consider the former embassy historic nor is it protected as a historic landmark, and it must come down.
The Panamanian Society of Engineers and Architects suggested preserving the building and some have said it might be a nice place for a museum. In 1938, the United States signed a 999-year lease for the Balboa Avenue property but were willing to trade for land in the Clayton area closer to the current U.S. embassy.
In a separate real estate venture and in a different location, the government is also planning on investing $130 million in creating Penitentiary City.
