The vision for the Manifattura Tabacchi, a former tobacco factory
(Picture: Handout)Not much changes in Italy’s Renaissance-packed city of Florence. The marble walls of the Duomo, the bell tower designed by Giotto, the Uffizi Gallery and the Ponte Vecchio: together, they combine to make the city a monumental open-air museum of historical excellence.
Yet for the Florentine population of around 700,000, the city’s rigid respect for the past can make daily life difficult.
The historic centre is small, roads are narrow and tourist numbers are huge, 15 million in pre-Covid 2019.
For them and for second-home owners, the launch of Manifattura Tabacchi, a significant new development 25 minutes-walk northwest from the former city walls, is an intriguing project.
Manifattura Tabacchi is a former tobacco factory designed in the 1930s by Pier Luigi Nervi, a celebrated Italian architect and engineer who also worked on the Pirelli Tower in Milan, Italy’s first skyscraper, and buildings for the 1960 Rome Olympics.
The factory closed in 2001 leaving the enormous site, 110,000 square metres with sixteen separate buildings, largely unused.
Until now. A visionary regeneration project over the next four years aims to create a new cultural landmark for Florence, somewhere with shops, small businesses, laboratories and creative studios as well as one, two and three-bedroom lofts and apartments for sale, priced from €387,000.
“This is a development and regeneration project that will create a destination in its own right,” says Jelena Cvjetkovic from Savills, the estate agency selling homes in the project.
“In London we’ve seen similar projects in Kings Cross and Battersea Power Station where a mix of business space, shops and residential homes brings a new dynamic energy.
“Florence has a great tradition of reinventing its spaces — look at Le Murate, a former nunnery, then a prison which since 2018 has become a multipurpose event space. Manifattura Tabacchi is the next step in that tradition.”
The first homes for sale within the industrial-style buildings, ready for December 2023, include 22 lofts at Puro, building 12, with high ceilings, large Crittal-style windows and a contemporary design, and 21 larger apartments in building 7, Anilla, with interiors designed by award-winning designer Patricia Urquiola.
Eco-credentials include a BREEAM certification of ‘Excellent’ and high energy efficiency ratings. Residents’ facilities include a fitness area, tennis courts, bike storage room, pet grooming area, a furnished rooftop lounge looking over to the historic centre of Florence and a concierge service.
A bus line currently connects the buildings to the centre of Florence — less than two miles away — with plans for a new tram line from the airport to the city centre to pass close by.
Other buildings on site already house several youthful companies: a hat maker, a shop selling plant, and a lift reimagined as a bookshop.
Florence’s prestigious fashion university has one of its bases there and there’s also a hotel and theatre.
Over time, restaurants, bars and further shops will be added, with the aim of creating a state-of-the-art urban district, a community of creatives.
“Prices at Manifattura Tabacchi are higher than average for the area but below the highs of the historic centre,” says Cvjetkovic.
“This is such an exciting project for Florence. It shows a city looking to the future, not merely looking back at its glorious heritage. Florence has always been a city of creatives. Manifattura Tabacchi, with its creative vision, is giving a new generation the opportunity to continue that trend.”
