Santa Fe or City Santa Fe is one of Mexico City's major business districts, located in the west part of the city in the delegaciones (boroughs) of Cuajimalpa and Álvaro Obregón. Paseo de la Reforma and Constituyentes are the primary means of access to the district from the central part of the city. Santa Fe consists mainly of highrise buildings surrounding a large shopping mall, which is currently the second largest mall in Latin America (Centro Comercial Santa Fe). The district also includes a residential area and three college campuses, among other facilities.
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'City Santa Fe' took its name from the nearby town of
Epoca Colonial and Independence
City Santa Fefu during the colonial and the first century of independent Mexico with a pastoral landscape of sand mining activity, which was divided between the towns of Santa Fe, Santa Lucia, San Mateo and San Pedro Tlaltenango Cuajimalpa, besides that she ran the royal road to Toluca, which started from Tacubaya, passing through Santa Fe, went up the avenue now Cuajimalpa Arteaga and Salazar in the Sierra de las Cruces and continued by the current stroke of the federal highway to Toluca. At the time of Porfirio Diaz was built on this road a railway, which originally came only to the people of Santa Fe, then electrified and expanded to La Venta in Cuajimalpa where he served for passenger transport and trunks of trees that Pena and company operated the Poor in San Angelo.
30s and 40s
Already in the 30's the presence of sandbanks in the area cause the exploitation of them to fill the growing construction industry in Mexico City, this operation took place several interesting facts for its current use.
- The biggest was that the extraction of sand created a gap of almost 4 km long by 2 km wide and in some places up to 100 m depth.
- Another was the diversion of the river Tacubaya by federal highway to Toluca, leaving no water sources that could be used to supply water to the river as this feeds the area of Lomas. Natural flows and to make the drainage of the area by gravity.
- Another point was that by abrupt changes in level, the area is very limited in natural areas for building roads, as has the barrier north of the neighborhoods that were created and east and west the presence of ravines, while the national park south of the Desert of the Lions.
- Another point was that being a landfill on a hard floor, the introduction of potable water lines are in danger of contamination by leachate that can not move the site, together that the mechanical weakness of these soils makes difficult the introduction of drainage lines, and that soil settlements are in danger of breaking and increasing soil pollution, which continue to produce gas to be released every so often .
Years 50's
In 1953 after a derailment where several were killed in what is now the colony's Ocote Cuajimalpa was withdrawn electric train service, in addition to that by this time the old royal road to Toluca already had strong competition from road federal Toluca, which runs along the west ridge which had to be stopped to avoid the collapse of the road. Today in the south of the Calle 16 de Septiembre even can see the outline of the path that requires them to leave the eastern ridge bordering the area and who once was a slum called Romita. This right of way gave rise to the Avenida Tamaulipas which connects with the road from Santa Lucia and the Basque avenue de Quiroga.
Years 60's
In the 60's sand deposits became difficult to exploit because the reinforcements of the walls were increasingly difficult and costly, so the mine owners began to sell the mines to the Federal District, which the use as a landfill, contrary to what is said recently from the northern edge of Santa Fe Shopping Center to the area of the colony was used as Pena Blanca dump, even on the side of Cuajimalpa with tunnels that cross to walk of Tamarind, was a mess which was duly closed and locked when the former President José López Portillo, built their residential complex in the popularly called "Dog Hill".
The 70's
In the early 70's was created urban development plan for the area, which would be built in an industrial zone in the area, to provide jobs to locals and develop import substitution, between what is planned consider creating the social rehabilitation center west "Ceres" like those built in the north, south and west of Mexico City. This plan does not consider the construction of residential areas as it was anticipated the weak capacity to carry water or drainage out of the area. This even had to be ratified by the boards of neighbors from the surrounding towns.
The 80's
In the 80's had managed to close most landfills and had begun construction of buildings, for this we proceeded to the evacuation of a lost city that was in what is now Colonia Centro de Ciudad Santa Fe , called the "Viñita" which was the seat of the pickers in the area, which they considered the cleanest of the area dumps, which had given him a route of the then Route 100, which still runs from San Jose in Cuajimalpa Tacubaya.
In this time that is created between Servimet "Urban Services of the FDA" and investors the first development plan in order to make it unattended office area housing resource load by requiring the area to which a trust is created. This development is linked financially to the U.S. investor George Soros.
It is in 1982 that Universidad Iberoamericana built on land donated by the Santa Fe unity government, which marks the change from industrial to residential area of great economic level, as initially think.
The 90's
During the administration of President Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994), the then ruler of the city Manuel Camacho Solís and his colleagues devised a project that in theory would be similar to the ultra zone La Défense in Paris, which would be located on existing landfills, so had to use modern techniques to first fill again with several flattened layers of sand over millions of tons of garbage persist in the soil of big corporations today, which continue to spread and seeping into groundwater contaminated water from the city permanently, then to build. To do this you create a 'Master Program' with which the government and investors seek to regulate and create the necessary infrastructure.
It is in this decade that we see a construction boom with the arrival of Santa Fe Shopping Center in the area Cruz Manca, at this time and under the regency of Manuel Camacho Solís is given for the eviction of settlers of Romita and other areas, which are mostly resettled in the area of San Jose in Cuajimalpa. Through this avenue opens Tamaulipas and started the construction of the toll highway Mexico - Toluca, which was to be continued on the outskirts of the city to reach the highway to Cuernavaca.
As a result of economic crisis in Mexico in 1994 the master schedule was canceled and it was until 2000 when the first phase of Santa Fe City resurfaced. It also assumes canceled all the original project, including the use of the property's "Mountain Meadows Park" as the Alameda Poniente, of which there are the north, east and south.
First decade of 2000
The inadequate road infrastructure, energy, hydro power, which was originally planned for a residential zone, residents generated active participation in solving their basic problems, so they propose and manage a new organization where they create a sort of government procedure in which a special item given the GDF without telling borough governments, leading to coordination problems as for example for drinking water can not connect to networks and to get their Cuajimalpa sewage can not connect to networks of Álvaro Obregón and not even treatment plant that exists in proximity, hence the new Government of Ontario "GDF," has presented proposals for solution, as a road tunnel that starts from the Roma to City Santa Fe, which fail to be viable the high economic investment.
For those circumstances in 2009 is considering the possibility of creating a new office in the area. The new delegation was seen more as a way of validating the almost self-government in the area for the trust that manages it, because the proposal only covers residential and commercial areas of high economic level, excluding the low level found on its periphery, which are part of the problem, since by them is where are the roads and networks that feed the area.
Santa Fe´s Trust
With the creation of Santa Fe industrial project in the 70's was created a trust, where the government of the then Federal District "DDF", participate with their respective offices responsible for urban development, giving investors the facilities in the area electricity, lighting, roads, water and drainage to install its industry. But with the change of plans the plans were modified the characteristics of flows and inflows, which have great impact on the area. In 1994 the Association of Settlers Zedec Santa Fe, CA with the first investors in this development, among these we have:
- Automotriz Hermer, SA of C.V.
- Banca Serfin, SA of C.V.
- Impulsora Corporate Real Estate, SA of C.V.
- Corporate Option Santa Fe II, SA of C.V.
- Universidad Iberoamericana, A.C.
- Santa Fe Park, SA of C.V.
- Property Home, SA of C.V.
- Hewlett Packard de Mexico, SA of C.V.
You residents created the Association of Settlers Zedec Santa Fe in 1999, to present a common front to the problems that were found in the area.
On 23 February 2004 under the government of Marcelo Ebrard who had been Secretary to the Government of the DDF under the government of the regent Manuel Camacho Solis, with infrastructure problems and challenges for the Federal District to meet the objectives of the original trust was created the Trust Colon de Santa Fe, constituted by the Government of the District Federal and Settlers Association Zedec Santa Fe This is because in its origin was an urban infrastructure development, where the federal government represented by the DDF was responsible for providing urban infrastructure for industrial use, even thought to use the right of way of the old railroad to build a radio station, connecting the cities of Toluca and Mexico. Something similar to the current Rail Commuter of the Metropolitan Area of Mexico Buenavista - Cuautitlan. Which is partly drawn from the current highway. For this reason it has kept the local governments out of both the administration and budgets have been invested in the area by the government. Not to mention that some areas for security reasons are closed to the public way, has had to hire police corps and industrial bank, has had to provide water supply service pipes and removal by sewage pipes also.
The agreement invested amounts are a percentage of property tax and are subject to review and approval expressed by the technical committee as the highest authority of the trust and trustee, this is composed of 7 members of which 4 are appointed by the association and the 3 remaining the Federal District government and decisions are taken by majority vote and at least 1 of the GDF with the president casting vote in case of tie and extraordinarily many times as needed.
Area Statistics
- Divided into 10 sectors: downtown, Cruz Manca, La Fe, La Loma, La Mexicana, Totolapa, Paseo de las Lomas, Peña Blanca, Bosques de Santa Fe and the school zone
- 13.80% of the total area of offices in the city
- Commercial rent between 20 and 25 dollars per square meter in a class A+ (highest-ranked) building
- 70,000 employees
- 4,311 resident families
- 8 million shopping mall visitors per year
- 4 universities: Universidad Iberoamericana was the first in the zone.
- 13,500 students
Criticism
Santa Fe was designed as a planned community; however urbanists designed it as a car centric suburb and left it without a human scale. Depending on who you ask Santa Fe is either cutting edge development ripe for imitation, or it is on the verge of disaster.[1] There are very few road connections to the rest of the city, public transportation is almost non existent and public infrastructure and space for pedestrians is very limited. This results in big traffic jams and decreased quality of life.
According to some, social segregation may be a more serious problem than the lack of infrastructure. Since the Pueblo of Santa Fe had already existed there before, office and apartment towers are also surrounded by humble neighborhoods of cinderblock apartments stacked precariously on the slopes. The lack of road connections and its location in the edge of the city increase an isolated effect. Beyond its function as a business hub, Santa Fe is not a magnet for nightlife or recreational activities, as are Polanco or Condesa; its huge shopping mall is relatively underutilized and its rents are well below shopping malls (Perisur, Plaza Satélite) in more established neighborhoods.
Today
Despite the criticism Santa Fe continues its development. However, the lack of infrastructure and over-investment have created an oversupply of commercial real estate. According to Colliers the vacancy rate in Santa Fe is 27 percent (2005), the highest in the city. This oversupply in the commercial real estate market can also be seen in the monthly rent, having been the highest in the city for A+ buildings it is now in the average c (range of $20-25 per square meter), below that of the central Paseo de la Reforma and Polanco markets.
References
- Mexico City, Real Estate Market Overview 2004-2005. Colliers International.
- Ciudad de México Mercado de Oficinas 2005-2006. Colliers International.
Notes
See also
External links
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