White Papers

Occasional research and policy analysis from //Avvia on the technical and regulatory issues shaping infrastructure, real estate, and public investment in Puerto Rico.

Toward a Puerto Rican Seismic Retrofit Incentive

By Alex G. Miranda-Poggys, PhD, PE, PMP - August 2026

Excerpt (Executive Summary): Puerto Rico sits at the intersection of severe seismic risk and an aging, under-retrofitted building stock, yet has no dedicated fiscal incentive to drive private-sector seismic upgrades. This white paper examines Italy's Superbonus, Ecobonus, and Sismabonus programs, three fiscal-incentive mechanisms that mobilized billions in private building-renovation investment, and distills the design choices that made them effective (and the pitfalls that made them costly). It then proposes a framework for a Puerto Rican Seismic Retrofit Incentive, tailored to the Commonwealth's fiscal constraints, housing stock, and regulatory environment, as a policy pathway to reduce seismic risk while catalyzing local construction and engineering activity.

Del Estorbo al Activo

By Alex G. Miranda-Poggys, PhD, PE, PMP - September 2026 (Spanish)

Extracto (Resumen Ejecutivo): La Ley 97-2026, la ms reciente enmienda en nueve aos al marco de estorbos pblicos y expropiacin de Puerto Rico, otorga a los municipios herramientas mucho ms rpidas para declarar, remediar y adjudicarse el ttulo de propiedades abandonadas, manteniendo al mismo tiempo al capital privado a distancia durante el primer ao de disposicin de cualquier propiedad. Este white paper mide con precisin el inventario de propiedades abandonadas de la isla (343,471 unidades vacantes, 72,500 direcciones inactivas y ms de 150,000 propiedades que cumpliran el umbral de estorbo pblico), traza la evolucin legislativa de nueve aos de la ley, y ubica dnde puede participar legalmente el capital privado, y dnde an no puede, bajo la ventana de preferencia de un ao y el derecho de retracto. Concluye con recomendaciones concretas para municipios, inversionistas privados y firmas de asesora tcnica.