The largest campus in Europe will be in Italy, and the first lessons will be held in September 2020. With a very precise and stringent deadline, today H-Farm has laid the foundation stone for the expansion of H-Campus, its innovative center dedicated to training, which will cover more than 50 hectares (27 of which are woodland) and will be able to accommodate over 3.000 students, with 244 beds in the dormitory.
After a year, 2018, according to the same founder and CEO of H-Farm, Riccardo Donadonparticularly complicated ("we suffered a very violent stop"), the startup incubator of Ca'Tron (Roncade), a piece of territory between the provinces of Treviso and Venice, restarts focusing everything on education. “Talent and young people are two words that we read too little in the newspapers,” Donadon said, noting that a new Disney amusement park should have been built on the very estate where H-Campus will be built in the past: “We think it went for the best. There is a lot of talk about brain drain, but instead we want to keep them and bring them here from all over the world”.
“It is also a great opportunity for the local area – added Donadon, who hosted various local authorities and the initiative's various private partners on the stage of the inauguration -: today we have an Italy in which Milan is growing and rest of the country risks being left behind. We can demonstrate that there is not only Milan but also the Veneto with its excellence, its universities, its entrepreneurial fabric. More than an H-Farm initiative, this is an initiative for the territory”. Campus expansion project starts in 2017 and is a virtuous case of public-private partnership: in fact there is not only the signature of H-Farm, but the operation was possible thanks to the establishment, in February two years ago, of a closed, non-speculative real estate fund, called "Ca' Tron - H- Campuses".
The Fund, managed by Finint Investments SGR (the asset management company of the Banca Finint Group), has assets of over 101 million euro (with raised assets of 80 million and with economic repercussions expected on the territory of almost 9 million) and it was more than 95% subscribed by institutional investors: Cattolica Assicurazioni (owner of the estate) holds the majority stake in the Fund (56% of the assets), CDP Investimenti SGR (Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Group), with the FIA 2 fund “Smart housing, smart working, Education & Innovation, on 40 % and finally Ca' Tron Real Estate (the company of the founders of H-FARM), for the remaining 4%. "We are proud - said the CEO of Finint Investments Mauro Sbroggiò - to be able to contribute to the creation of such a wide-ranging digital training center, a project that knows how to combine two important levers: the future of young people, which passes through targeted training and in step with the times, and the future of our country, which does not disregard high-level technological development".
As befits an innovative project projected into the future, H-Campus could not miss the challenge of sustainability: the expansion will be only 10% built, with the construction of 13 new buildings dedicated to lessons, and to the world of startups and businesses, for a total of 30.000 square meters of covered area, entirely at zero volume, thanks to the recovery of volumes of abandoned structures and the demolition of a former military base in the area. In addition to the student residence, there will also be an American-style sports center of around 7000 square meters in total, complete with a skate park and track and field athletics.
The remaining space will be used as a park equipped with over 27 hectares of wooded area land open to the public (thanks to specially designed agreements, all residents of neighboring municipalities will be able to access sports facilities, green spaces, services and cultural events) where around 3.500 new trees and plants will be planted which will allow the restoration of the area's original biodiversity: an expansion in perfect synergy with the historic headquarters of H-Farm and in total harmony with the countryside that surrounds the area, an agricultural estate owned by Cattolica Assicurazioni and which overlooks the suggestive Venice lagoon.
“Catholic – he commented the president Paolo Bedoni – felt the duty to help create a cultural and educational opportunity for the development of the area, taking advantage of an enviable geographical position and proudly supporting a project that will distinguish our Region in the years to come. This operation represents a new growth model that combines tradition and innovation, land and culture, environment and technology, components that we are already enhancing in our Ca' Tron agricultural property with objectives of sustainable recovery, rehabilitation and agri-food development. Our company has always believed in the development of the person, starting from his training, and in the enhancement of the territory at the service of its citizens. We strongly feel social responsibility: we stake the future of the country on young people and their preparation and it is a game in which we want to be protagonists.”
