Reuse radar

Messina

Messina's empty-building story is the rehousing of its shantytown families. The Government commissioner (the Region's president) is renovating flats and acquiring buildings — 15 flats were handed to the city agency ArisMe in July 2026, three of them confiscated from the mafia — while State barracks lie unused: Caserma Masotto (12,044 m², "non utilizzata") and Caserma Nervesa (3,740 m²), where 94 homes are planned for €12 million. On 9 January 2025 the Demanio, the City and the commissioner signed a Piano Città putting 20 State buildings and the ex-shantytown area into one portfolio. The register records nine State buildings as free.

Vacant office spaceNot yet measured

Empty buildings on record7121 confirmed

On the map308buildings and sites from 9 open sources

Homes potential—not in the economic model’s office data yet

Office figures: No office-vacancy figure for Messina turned up in the sources read on 9 Oct 2026. Map built 2026-10-09.

Messina city profile Reuse atlas: all of Europe

The map

Every building a record says stands empty, one point per building: filter by type, size and how sure the evidence is, and open one to see who says so. “Opportunities” switches to the co-op lens: public land, conversion potential and projects already under way, every source as its own layer.

No vacancy register: the City's open-data portal publishes its property inventory (3,531 units, CC BY, 2021, in the Treasury's format) but it carries no coordinates and only five units are 'inutilizzabile'; it was read but not mapped.

Loading map…

0 empty buildings · colour = type, dark ring = confirmed

Check any building in Messina: could it become homes, and could the EHC model work there?

Named empty by owners and public records

2 buildings that the owner or a public register records as empty — whole buildings of at least 1,500 m² whose plans suit homes on paper (band A in our conversion check), not ruins and not let for interim use. Each row says who records it empty and when. We have not been to them, and a record can be out of date; those we have confirmed empty ourselves are marked as tour stops.

Building	Floor area	Recorded empty by	Actions
Block of 85 units with 36 flats, Via Polveriera 69 State block of 85 units, 36 of them flats · Via Polveriera 69, Bisconte · Agenzia del Demanio (State)	4,954 m²	Agenzia del Demanio — Immobili dello Stato (record ME0187003) Public register · European Housing Coop research · 9 Oct 2026
Caserma Masotto (Direzione Artiglieria)As a partner 1917 State barracks complex, main block and pavilions · Località Bisconte, Via Comunale Bisconte · Agenzia del Demanio (State)	12,044 m²	State buildings offered to investors (Agenzia del Demanio, Portale Investitori) Owner's list · Agenzia del Demanio · 9 Oct 2026

Where to look first

Buildings with evidence that they stand empty — a second source agrees, a public record names them, or we have checked them — ranked by a score you can read: co-op scale, daylight depth, a station nearby, a zone that allows homes, affordable land and an open route in. Checked buildings carry their result; nobody has visited them on site yet. Leerstandsmelder reports join the list when they sit in a large non-residential building and a second source agrees.

Priority	Building	Floor area	Depth	Station	Conversion check
83	Edificio Via T.capra - Sede Uffici Giudiziari Public building named vacant · Edificio Via T.capra - Sede Uffici Giudiziari · 2 other sources nearby	4,518 m²	—	185 m	—
76	Caserma "ainis" Public building named vacant · Caserma "ainis" Via Taormina -Provinciale	15,200 m²	—	868 m	—
73	Caserma Masotto (Direzione Artiglieria)Plans announcedOnly as a partner Public building named vacant · 1 other source nearby	12,044 m²	13.9 m	2,230 m	A fit only
66	Magazzini di Commissariato della Marina Militare Public building named vacant · 4 other sources nearby	6,874 m²	—	633 m	—
66	Ospedali, case di cura, cliniche e assimilabili Public building named vacant · Ospedali, case di cura, cliniche e assimilabili	3,700 m²	—	980 m	—
63	Block of 85 units with 36 flats, Via Polveriera 69Not confirmed yet Public building named vacant · 1 other source nearby	4,954 m²	21 m	1,968 m	A fit only
63	Fortificazioni e loro dipendenze Public building named vacant · Fortificazioni e loro dipendenze (es.:mura)	14,090 m²	16.3 m	—	A fit only
63	Biblioteca, pinacoteca, museo, gallerie Public building named vacant · Biblioteca, pinacoteca, museo, gallerie	1,659 m²	18.2 m	819 m	A fit only
58	Caserma Nervesa (Direzione Artiglieria) Public building named vacant · 1 other source nearby	3,740 m²	—	2,139 m	—
58	Ospedale Militare On public land · Ospedale Militare Viale Europa · 1 other source nearby	10,151 m²	—	1,519 m	—

Districts where conversion makes sense

Where empty offices, the right zoning and a working neighbourhood come together — and what could go wrong.

A hand outlining a neighbourhood on a city map, with small houses drawn inside

Bisconte and Camaro — the barracks quarter (north-west)

The Masotto and Nervesa barracks, the ex Polveriera Camaro, the ex Dicat cottages, a block of 85 units on Via Polveriera and the abandoned Poste garage cluster at Bisconte, next to the housing sites of the shantytown programme.

Masotto: 12,044 m² gross, "non utilizzata"
Nervesa: 3,740 m², 94 homes planned for €12 million
Ex Poste garage: about 3,700 m², abandoned (14 July 2026)

Risk: Poor condition and a PNRR deadline that has already slipped; part of Masotto is going to the State Police.

2 sources

Gazzi and Via Taormina (south)

Three Navy commissariat stores (6,874 m² in all) and the Caserma "Ainis" (15,200 m², partly free) are recorded by the State in the southern industrial and barracks belt.

Via Taormina: 4,056 + 2,089 + 729 m² recorded free
Caserma Ainis: 15,200 m², partly free

Risk: Logistics buildings, not housing; the State wants a fire-brigade headquarters on part of the Navy stores.

2 sources

Forts and batteries (hills and Strait)

Seventeen State records on the investor portal include twelve forts and batteries on the hills and along the Strait (Forte Gonzaga, Castellaccio, Ogliastri, Masotto, Serra La Croce and others), offered for cultural tourism.

Forte Serra La Croce: 5,000 m² gross
Forte Masotto: 3,500 m² gross

Risk: Heritage forts with poor access; none suits a housing co-op without a large public contribution.

1 source

Agenzia del Demanio — Portale Investitori (FeatureServer) (2026-10)

Owners and routes in

Who controls the space, and what a housing cooperative can actually do with them.

A door key on a doorstep with a drawn path leading to an open door

Public owner

Piano Città di Messina — Demanio, City and the shantytown commissioner

Signed on 9 January 2025: 20 State buildings that are partly used or disused and the municipal ex-shantytown area, with social housing, offices and services, student residences and the forts. Others can be added. A co-op can propose a use for a listed building or bring a project to the commissioner and the City.

1 source

Agenzia del Demanio — comunicato stampa Piano Città Messina (2025-01)

City agency

Struttura commissariale per il risanamento delle baraccopoli and ArisMe

The commissioner (the Region's president, with a sub-commissioner) renovates flats and acquires buildings; Genio Civile, Invitalia and ArisMe are the implementing bodies, and ArisMe receives the flats (15 handed over in July 2026, three confiscated from the mafia). As of April 2026 the programme also listed: Bisconte (40 flats, nearly €20 million), the ex Caserma Sabato (56 units, €9.3 million), Annunziata (27 flats) and Fondo Fucile (50 homes), and the ex Ferrotel and ex Gife buildings had been acquired. A co-op can offer to manage or renovate flats.

2 sources

Signals to watch

Decisions, auctions and closures that change what becomes available, and when.

2026-07-14
15 renovated flats handed to ArisMe; the Bisconte Poste garage rots
The commissioner hands over flats (three confiscated from the mafia) while a 3,700 m² former Poste garage stays abandoned.
2 sources
- Regione Siciliana (2026-07)
- La Sicilia (2026-07)
2026-04-10
PNRR housing sites at risk of losing funds
Reporting for the national programme was due in June 2026 after an extension from March; Nervesa (94 homes), Bisconte (40), ex Caserma Sabato (56) and Annunziata (27) are in the list.
1 source
- La Sicilia (2026-04)
2025-01-09
Piano Città of Messina signed
Demanio, City and commissioner agree to reuse 20 State buildings and the ex-shantytown area.
1 source
- Agenzia del Demanio (2025-01)

Sources and freshness

18 sources connected, 1 waiting for access. We only use data we may lawfully reuse; where a publisher blocks automated access we do not work around it — a person downloads it, or we ask for permission.

Show every source, its licence and when we last read it

Source	Access	Records	Status	Licence
OpenStreetMap disused/abandoned tags and brownfields OpenStreetMap contributors	Open API	51	Live 2026-10-09	ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors)
Rail, S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations (OpenStreetMap) OpenStreetMap contributors	Open API	scoring	Live 2026-10-09	ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors)
Building heights: GlobalBuildingAtlas (TU Munich) Zhu, X. X., Chen, S., Zhang, F., Shi, Y., Wang, Y. (2025), Technical University of Munich GlobalBuildingAtlas: an open global and complete dataset of building polygons, heights and LoD1 3D models. Earth System Science Data 17(12), 6647–6668, doi:10.5194/essd-17-6647-2025. Read from the Parquet copy on Source Cooperative. Satellite-derived heights (typically 1.5–3 m error in Europe), turned into storeys with storey heights fitted on Berlin; used only where no register or official 3D model sizes the building.	Open download	31 buildings sized	Live 2026-10-09	CC BY-NC 4.0 (heights); footprints from OpenStreetMap and Microsoft: ODbL
Road noise (EU Environmental Noise Directive, Lden) European Environment Agency	Open API	scoring	Live 2026-10-09	EEA standard re-use policy (attribution)
Leerstandsmelder.de — public reports of empty buildings Leerstandsmelder (Gängeviertel e.V., Hamburg) Shown while we ask Leerstandsmelder for permission. Reports since 2016 only, with the address, the month reported and a link to each entry; not checked by EHC. Each point says when a report has since been marked demolished, lived in, in interim use or rebuilt on Leerstandsmelder, and the owner type the reporter gave (private owners are never named).	Asking for permission	0	Pending 2026-10-09	Credited to Leerstandsmelder.de; asking for permission
Open-ended property funds: buildings they report partly empty Open-ended real-estate funds (each point names its fund and report) German and Austrian open-ended public property funds must list every property with its vacancy (or letting) rate in their annual and half-year reports. scripts/reuse/import-fund-reports.ts reads those lists; properties at 10 % vacancy or more are shown, those at 25 % or more count as evidence.	Open download	0	Live 2026-10-09	Published fund report (KAGB / KARBV property list), cited per point
Co-working spaces, department stores, banks, hotels and cinemas listed as permanently closed Overture Maps Foundation (closure data: BrightQuery company records) Places with operating_status "permanently_closed" in the monthly Overture release, read by scripts/reuse/import-overture-closures.ts and matched to the building they sit in. A closed business is usually one unit; names are shown only for companies, never for sole traders.	Open download	0	Live 2026-10-09	CDLA Permissive 2.0 (Overture Maps Foundation)
Land without current use and stalled construction, mapped from satellite imagery (Copernicus Urban Atlas 2006–2018) European Environment Agency — Copernicus Land Monitoring Service Urban Atlas class 13400 (brownfields, demolition sites and gaps in the built-up area, 0.25 ha and up) compared across the 2006, 2012 and 2018 editions, so each plot says how long it has stood unused; plus construction sites (13300) already under way in 2012, and 2012 construction sites left unused by 2018. Read from the EEA's open ArcGIS services, the same way in every radar city. The 2021 edition (Copernicus Data Space) drops plots built on since 2018 where scripts/reuse/import-urban-atlas-2021.ts has been run. Points are context, never evidence of vacancy.	Open API	50	Live 2026-10-09	Copernicus open data (© European Union, Copernicus Land Monitoring Service 2006–2021, EEA)
Office buildings of 1,000 m² or more, with depth and storeys (EUBUCCO) EUBUCCO (TU Berlin / ai4up), from the Spanish cadastre, Regione Lombardia’s building database and OpenStreetMap EUBUCCO harmonises Europe's building footprints with their use, height and age. Only buildings whose source names the use are kept — the cadastre's office class in Barcelona and Madrid, Lombardy's "commerciale" in Milan, building=office in OpenStreetMap for Dublin and Lisbon — never EUBUCCO's machine-learning guesses. The footprint gives the plan depth, so the conversion score treats them like the German cadastre's offices (scripts/reuse/import-eubucco.ts → src/scripts/data/reuse/eubucco/, ODbL).	Open download	0	Live 2026-10-09	ODbL 1.0 (EUBUCCO v0.2; Dirección General del Catastro, Regione Lombardia, © OpenStreetMap contributors)
Stalled construction and buildings held by insolvent developers EHC research (dated press and court sources per point) Signa, Adler/Consus and other developer insolvencies since 2022 and stalled sites, each with its latest dated status (src/scripts/data/reuse/stalled-projects.json; news leads from scripts/reuse/mine-news.ts are reviewed before they join).	EHC research	0	Live 2026-10-09	Cited publisher per point
Church buildings the dioceses and regional churches plan to give up Catholic dioceses and Protestant regional churches (their building plans), via EHC research Buildings a church body’s published building plan or recent reporting names as to be given up, without church funding, for sale or lease, or profaned (src/scripts/data/reuse/church-plans.json and brussels-churches.json).	EHC research	0	Live 2026-10-09	Cited publisher per point
Named buildings and sites from EHC research (each with its own source) European Housing Coop research	EHC research	6	Live 2026-10-09	Facts cited to their publishers
Year built and listing: OpenStreetMap building tags OpenStreetMap contributors start_date / construction_date and heritage / listed_status of the OpenStreetMap outline a record is matched to, where no register answers. Read with the outline match, not a separate query.	Open API	scoring	Live 2026-10-09	ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors)
State buildings recorded as free (Agenzia del Demanio) Agenzia del Demanio — Geoportale, Immobili dello Stato	Open API	9	Live 2026-10-09	No licence stated on the map service — credited to Agenzia del Demanio (its open-data files are CC BY 3.0 IT); shown under the 6 Oct 2026 licence decision
State-owned buildings of 1,000 m² or more in use (Agenzia del Demanio) Agenzia del Demanio — Geoportale, Immobili dello Stato	Open API	87	Live 2026-10-09	No licence stated on the map service — credited to Agenzia del Demanio (its open-data files are CC BY 3.0 IT); shown under the 6 Oct 2026 licence decision
State buildings offered to investors (Agenzia del Demanio, Portale Investitori) Agenzia del Demanio — Crea valore, investi con noi (investor portal)	Open API	17	Live 2026-10-09	No licence stated on the map service — credited to Agenzia del Demanio (its open-data files are CC BY 3.0 IT); shown under the 6 Oct 2026 licence decision
Public buildings their owner records as not used (Treasury property census 2022) Ministero dell'Economia e delle Finanze, Dipartimento dell'Economia — Rilevazione dei beni immobili delle amministrazioni pubbliche (data at 31 Dec 2022)	Manual download	18	Snapshot 2026-10-09	CC BY 4.0 (stated on the MEF open-data page; reuse with the source credited)
Public flats, shops and stores their owner records as not used (Treasury property census 2022) Ministero dell'Economia e delle Finanze, Dipartimento dell'Economia — Rilevazione dei beni immobili delle amministrazioni pubbliche (data at 31 Dec 2022)	Manual download	69	Snapshot 2026-10-09	CC BY 4.0 (stated on the MEF open-data page; reuse with the source credited)
OpenStreetMap: land mapped as brownfield OpenStreetMap contributors	Open API	1	Live 2026-10-09	ODbL 1.0

What this radar cannot see yet

No vacancy register: the City's open-data portal publishes its property inventory (3,531 units, CC BY, 2021, in the Treasury's format) but it carries no coordinates and only five units are 'inutilizzabile'; it was read but not mapped.
ANBSC's confiscated-property export (openregio.anbsc.it) answered HTTP 504 on every request on 9 Oct 2026; the commissioner's confiscated flats are named in news reports, not in a list.
The Treasury's 2022 census has the national social-security institute declaring 156 of its 246 buildings in Messina 'not used' — a wholesale entry, left out.
The Region's housing agency (IACP Messina) declares all 3,715 of its units "used directly", so there is no public-housing vacancy figure for Messina.
No regional ruins or building-height layer for Sicily was found; floor areas come from the Global Building Atlas.

Know an empty building we have missed?

Open data cannot see everything. Tell us about a building in Messina that stands empty or barely used; once we have checked it, it joins the map under “Reported by visitors (checked)”.

A phone held up to photograph an empty shopfront, with a map pin drawn above it

Radars nearby

The other radars in the same country and the nearest beyond. All 134 cities in the atlas

The figure on each card: empty buildings on record.

Bari918 Bologna87 Catania217 Florence71 Genoa174 Milan504 Naples255 Palermo56 Podgorica9 Rome1,114 Skopje41 Tirana38 Turin98 Valletta7 Verona55