What Happened
Panama City’s planned urban renewal of Avenida Nicanor de Obarrio, better known as Calle 50, has been canceled for now after the Municipality of Panama halted the bidding process for the project. The contract had a reference price of $8 million and covered the study, design and construction of the works.
Mayor Mayer Mizrachi approved the cancellation through a resolution, citing the need to reprogram the institution’s investment budget before moving forward. The decision came before any proposals were received.
Why Calle 50 Matters
The project was intended for the stretch between Federico Boyd Avenue and Vía Brasil in Bella Vista, a corridor of about 1.7 kilometers that is one of the most active in the capital. Calle 50 is a key urban artery in Panama City because of its concentration of banks, corporate offices, hotels and restaurants, along with heavy pedestrian and vehicle traffic.
Once conceived as an exclusive residential area in the 1930s and 1940s, Calle 50 has evolved into one of Panama’s main financial and commercial corridors. It also serves public transport users, with 13 MiBus routes moving through the area and an average of 1,550 daily users as of September 2024.
What the Project Sought to Fix
The planned renewal aimed to address long-standing mobility and public-space problems along the avenue. Those included limited universal accessibility, broken sidewalk continuity, poor lighting, a lack of shaded areas and resting spaces, and obstacles that affect safe pedestrian movement.
The bidding documents required bidders to take current conditions into account and to present a design that integrated all elements needed for execution, including coordination with other urban projects underway or planned in the surrounding area.
What This Means for the City
For residents, workers and visitors who move through Bella Vista daily, the suspension delays a project that had been presented as a way to improve one of the city’s most visible and economically important corridors. The cancellation also reflects the pressure municipalities face when trying to advance public works while adjusting limited investment funds.
For now, Calle 50 remains as it is, with the proposed transformation on hold until the city can reorganize its budget and decide whether to relaunch the project later.