Mexican architect brings Salvadoran airport, Bitcoin city projects to life

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has entrusted the design of his flagship Pacific airport and Bitcoin city projects to renowned Mexican architect Fernando Romero.

Romero designed Mexico's US$15bn Texcoco international airport that was canceled by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2019. 

Romero presented the project designs to Bukele on Tuesday, as shown in photos published on the president's Twitter account, indicating that plans for both initiatives are advancing despite doubts over feasibility and financing. 

Renderings of the Bitcoin city show a circular urban area near the Conchagua volcano on the Gulf of Fonseca in La Unión department, while photos of the airport highlight the architect’s undulating style that was used in the design for the failed airport project in Mexico state.

Although López Obrador canceled Romero’s airport project due to concerns over environmental impacts and excessive costs, his design won the international Rethinking The Future award for architecture, construction and design in the transport category.

The Pacific airport project, also in La Unión department, received backing from the legislative assembly last month to speed up the tender process. El Salvador’s congress is mainly controlled by Bukele’s party. 

Meanwhile, financing for the cryptocurrency city seems unclear, as the government has not managed to obtain the US$1bn blockchain bond it said it required to fund its construction. 

The letters, also known as Volcano bonds, were meant to be issued in March, but the date has been pushed back to September.

The Bitcoin city was announced by Bukele last year as part of his vision to turn El Salvador into the first country to accept the cryptocurrency as legal tender, using this as the basis to attract investors to the smart city. 

Last week, Moody's downgraded El Salvador's rating to 'Caa1' from 'B3' over constrained market access and “a deterioration in the quality of policymaking that has intensified implementation risks to the authorities' fiscal adjustment plans and increased uncertainty about financing prospects,” it said in a report.

On Tuesday, Bukele announced that his administration had acquired 500 bitcoins, its largest purchase of the cryptocurrency to date, following the 50% drop in its value since it peaked last November.

According to Bloomberg, El Salvador has bought 2,301 bitcoins since it was registered as legal tender in September 2021.