The beneficial role of surveys in the investment analysis for public built cultural heritage concessions

Cultural heritage concession has increasingly been adopted as part of public-private partnership agreements in situations where the public administration itself proves to be unable to manage its own cultural heritage. Compared to other public-private agreements, such as sponsorships, concession operations are more complex in nature and require that all private parties involved commit themselves long-term. On the one hand the private partner should estimate costs and revenues in a precise way, which is even more difficult for historic buildings, and be responsible for both ordinary and extraordinary maintenance. On the other hand, the public entity should conceive some legal protection schemes aimed at ensuring the property’s correct management on part of the private partner. Therefore, some continuous and preventive conservation activity is in essence mandatory. In these kinds of operations, a refined survey can allow more precise quantitative and qualitative valuations along the entire process: starting from the launch of the call for tenders, where GIS systems can provide descriptive contents, to the definition of detailed investment analysis by the private partner, as well as the management stage, where the implementation of asset management information systems such as BIM tools will allow for quicker and more efficient monitoring and surveillance by the public partner.