A Cost-Benefit Analysis for the Industrial Heritage Reuse: The Case of the Ex-Corradini Factory in Naples (Italy)

Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is a method to evaluate a project or a policy, considering all costs and benefits to encourage a medium- and long-term vision. The CBA application fields are broad, counting as primary domains: transportation, environment, cultural heritage, energy, research and innovation, and information technology. This paper shows a Cost-Benefit Analysis for the reuse project of a former industrial plant in the city of Naples (Italy). The purpose is to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the cost-benefit approach in the case of industrial building reuse. The preliminary outcomes show that the following social externalities are likely to be subject to a certain risk degree: i) amount of CO2 emissions saved, ii) benefits for businesses (enterprises and start-ups), iii) benefits for researchers, young professionals and students, iv) impacts on the real estate market, v) technological readiness of the involved innovative processes. The authors highlight that specialists should also search for ways to generate acceptable shadow prices for short-run consequences using empirical data from different sources.