Interceptions, budgets and direct relations with the Municipality: the Catella Foundation at the center of a system that intertwines urban green and large real estate operations
The Milan trees library is not just a garden. It is the heart of a network that holds together political, urban planning and great real estate affairs, with the Riccardo Catella Foundation, civic-cultural expression of Coima and its patron, Manfredi Catella at the top. For over ten years, the Foundation has presented itself as a subject engaged in the enhancement of urban green and social inclusion. But the transparency documents, the financial statements and above all the interceptions filed in the latest urban investigations tell a very different picture: millions of euros from public funds and private sponsors, constant and direct relationships with the mayor, leading councilors and architects, potential conflicts of interest in the municipal bodies that decide the fate of urban projects.
The official narrative, when in 2019 the Municipality of Milan entrusted the management of the Trees Library to the Foundation together with Coima, spoke of “zero cost for public coffers”, because the maintenance of the park would have been covered by private sponsors. In reality, by crossing the budgets and the pages of governance, it emerges that from 2019 to 2025 the Foundation collected 1 million and 52,000 euros of public contributions from the Ministry of Culture, the Lombardy Region, the Chamber of Commerce and Foundations such as Cariplo and Aem. Only from the Municipality of Milan, 160,000 euros in five years arrived, to which another 10,000 euros must be added by the AEM Foundation, investee of Palazzo Marino. In total, therefore, the share attributable directly or indirectly to the Municipality amounts to 170,000 euros. To these must be added the 410,000 euros per year estimated to cover the management costs of BAM guaranteed by private sponsors and further revenues related to the granting of the “events spaces”, which allow the foundation to collect additional resources. It is therefore not only a person who lives on voluntary donations: he is an actor who intercepts consistent public funds and adds them to sponsorships and commercial revenues, building a stable and relevant flow of money.
Intertwined roles and conflicts of interest
Inside this mechanism stands out the presence of figures that ask more than one question on the separation of roles. The name of Giuseppe Marinoni appears in the 2019 Ercanigramma of the Foundation, indicated as a member of the Scientific Committee for the Architecture and Territory Area. A few years later, in 2022, Marinoni became president of the landscape commission of the Municipality of Milan, the organ that expresses binding opinions on the most delicate urban projects in the city. The interceptions put the risk of mixed on white: in a message to Catella, for example, Archistar Stefano Boeri writes that Marinoni “totally supports this hypothesis and will do so in the commission”, referring to a design solution that should have exceeded critical reliefs.
The chats between catella and political power
The system of catella reports (accused of corruption and false and which on Wednesday 20 will have a hearing review on house arrest) with the Milanese political and administrative power is photographed by the chats seized by the investigators. With the mayor Giuseppe Sala, the relationships are direct and continuous. It is a catella to write in the full of urban planning negotiations: «Start auction by the end of the year. On the park you will find an agreement! », Message that brings out how the mayor was informed in real time about deadlines and strategies. In another exchange, Catella offers him to see himself “calmly, for a gin tonic and reasoning on the future”, and Sala replies with availability. In a significant passage, Catella updates the first citizen on the Olympic village and on the PNRR funds concluding with a cordial “good construction site”.
With Boeri, in addition to the design assessments, even personal events come into play: on March 23, 2022 Boeri wrote to Catella that “Giovanna Melandri that you know well is looking for an apartment for her eighteen -year -old daughter in Milan, about 450,000 budget. If you have any tips I speak to him ». A few weeks later, on June 8, 2022, he is the Catella to write to him indignant for the statements of the former councilor Pierfrancesco Maran on the projects of Porta Nuova and CityLife: “Modes but serious”, he says, and Boeri replies: “It would be enough to think about how he managed the story”. Maran also asked him: on January 13, 2023 the former councilor wrote to Catella that he saw Luca Sofri of the post, with an idea for the new location that could cross with the spaces at the Farini airport: “If you want to meet him, I’ll put you in contact. I take this opportunity to ask you if we want to see ourselves to update ourselves on the projects ». Catella accepts. “Hi Pierfrancesco, we organize crossing with Sofri to listen to project and between us”. With the former councilor Tancredi and with the manager Christian Malangone, dialogues emerge on preliminary checks and accelerations of urban practices.
Catella Foundation as a large company
Within the Foundation, the organizational machine works with managerial parameters from large a company. Francesca Colombo, the general and cultural director of the Bam and director of the Foundation, in 2023 he received 128,000 euros of fixed more than 40,000 bonuses for Bam and another 32,000 plus 10,000 for the Foundation, reaching a total of 210,000 euros.
Comparison with the other green spaces of Milan
The comparison with the other green spaces of Milan is illuminating. The Trees Library covers about 90,000 square meters, with an estimated cost of management of about 4.5 euros per square meter per year. The Indro Montanelli public gardens, 172,000 square meters, according to municipal estimates instead receive about 1 euro per square meter. A disproportion that is accentuated if you remember the summer of 2023, when a storm broke thousands of trees in the city, hitting the historical parks that suffer from chronic subfinification.
