2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-THREE - Public Planning and Development (§§ 1 — 11273) › PART II - Economic Development (§§ 231-241 — 695i) › Chapter 23 - Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (§§ 271 — 303) › § 278 - General powers

In addition to those elsewhere conferred by §§ 271—291a of this title, the Company shall have and may exercise the following general powers:
(a) To have perpetual existence as a company.
(b) To adopt, alter, and use a seal which shall be judicially noticed.
(c) To prescribe, adopt, amend, and repeal bylaws governing the manner in which its general business may be conducted and the powers and duties granted to, and imposed upon it by law may be exercised and performed.
(d) To have complete control and supervision of any and all of its property and activities, including the power to determine the character of and necessity for all its expenditures and the manner in which they shall be incurred, allowed and paid without regard to the provisions of any laws governing the expenditure of public funds and such determination shall be final and conclusive upon all officers of the Commonwealth Government, and to prescribe, adopt, amend, and repeal such rules and regulations as may be necessary or proper for the exercise and performance of its powers and duties.
(e) To sue and be sued.
(f) To make contracts and to execute all instruments necessary or convenient in the exercise of any of its powers.
(g) To acquire in any lawful manner, including, but without limitation, acquisition by purchase, condemnation, lease, bequest, devise or gift, and to hold, maintain, use and operate any property, real, personal, or mixed, tangible or intangible, including, but without limitation, securities and other personal property or any interest therein, deemed by it to be necessary or desirable for carrying out the purposes of the Company. The power to acquire property by condemnation shall not apply to the acquisition of buildings wherein enterprises of a commercial, industrial or agricultural nature are being operated in good faith.
(h) To appoint such officers, agents, and employees and vest them with such powers and duties, and to fix, change, and pay such compensation for their services as the Company may determine.
(i) To borrow money, give security and make and issue bonds of the Company for any of its corporate purposes or for the purpose of funding, refunding, paying, or discharging any of its issued or assumed outstanding bonds or obligations, and any of its payment of its bonds and of any and all other obligations by pledge or mortgage of, or other lien on, all or any of its contracts, revenues, income or property.
(j) To accept grants or loans from, and enter into contracts, leases, agreements, or other transactions with, any federal agency, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or political subdivisions of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and to expend the proceeds of any such grants or loans for any corporate purposes.
(k) To lease, alienate and dispose of, as it may prescribe, any of its property.
(l) Acquire, hold and dispose of stock and membership rights, contracts, bonds or other interests in other companies, entities or corporations, and exercise any and all powers or rights in relation therewith, and obtain the organization in accordance with the law and exercise partial or total control over profitable or nonprofit, affiliated or associated subsidiary companies, partnerships or corporations, provided that, in the judgment of the Board, such an arrangement is necessary, proper or convenient in order to achieve the purposes of the Company or the exercise of its powers, and to sell, lease, assign or otherwise cede any other Company property or delegate or transfer any of its rights, powers, functions or duties, except the right to institute eminent domain proceedings, to any such companies, entities or corporations that may be subject to its control.
(m) To do all acts or things necessary or convenient to carry out the powers granted to it by §§ 271—291a of this title or by any other Act of the Legislature of Puerto Rico, or by any Act of the Congress of the United States; Provided, however, That the Company shall have no power at any time or in any manner to pledge the credit or taxing power of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or any of its political subdivisions, nor shall the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or any of its political subdivisions be liable for the payment of the principal of or interest on any bonds issued by the Company.
(n) Whenever, in the judgment of the Company, it shall become necessary to take immediate possession of the property to be expropriated, the Company shall request of the Governor of Puerto Rico that he, in representation of the People of Puerto Rico, acquire, and he shall have power to acquire, by purchase, expropriation, or any other lawful means, for the use and benefit of the Company, such property and property rights as may be necessary and convenient to carry out the ends and purposes of the Company. The Company shall make available in advance to the People of Puerto Rico the required funds estimated as the value of the property or rights to be acquired. Any difference in value that may be determined by the court may be paid from the public treasury, but the Company shall be under obligation to reimburse such difference. Once said reimbursement is fully made, title to said property shall be vested in the Company by a court order duly entered; Provided, That in those cases in which the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico shall deem it necessary and convenient that the title on the property and/or rights thus acquired be registered directly in behalf of the Company, in order to expedite fulfillment of the ends and purposes for which it was created, he may so request from the court at any time within the eminent domain proceedings, and the court shall so order. The power herein vested shall not limit or restrict in any way whatsoever the power of the Company itself to acquire property.
(o) All real and personal property and all right or interest therein which the Company may deem it necessary to acquire for the carrying out of its purposes are hereby declared of public utility and may be expropriated by the Company, or at its behest, and for its use and benefit, by the People of Puerto Rico, represented by the Governor, without the previous declaration of public utility provided in § 2902 of Title 32.
(p) Eminent domain proceedings instituted under the provisions of subsections (g), (n), and (o) of this section shall be processed according to the provisions of §§ 2901—2913 of Title 32, and to that end the Company shall enjoy all rights and assume all obligations prescribed by said law with respect to every expropriating authority.
(q) To provide space in the existing and available buildings for non-profit public or private organizations that shall be established in the future, or in the case of those that already exist to expand their operations, to be used as factories in already existing and operating industrial zones under the protection of [the] Industrial Development [Company]. The human resources to be used for the functioning and operations of said factories must be, in their majority, persons with disabilities.
Any nonprofit organization that applies to lease a building owned by the Company shall include in its application, the intended use of the building; a revised copy of its certificate of incorporation; a certificate of corporate good standing; and any other requirement established by the regulations created for these purposes. Once the lease of the building is approved, the favored organization shall give notice of the availability of the jobs and their basic functions, to the recruitment offices of the following public entities that help in the search for jobs for this population sector: the Occupational Development Council; the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration; the Office of the Governor for the Employment of Persons with Disabilities, attached to the Office of the Advocate for Persons with Disabilities; and the Department of Labor and Human Resources.
The nonprofit organizations that qualify under this subsection shall be entitled to a reduction of the leasing rate established for the industrial zone in which the building to be leased is located.
For such purposes, the Company shall establish by regulations, the necessary provisions to handle all that is related to the application procedure, the selection of the site, including the rental to be fixed, and the requirements to be considered so as to request a reduction in the amount of the lease, to be determined pursuant to §§ 2101 et seq. of Title 3.
History —May 11, 1942, No. 188, p. 934, § 10; Apr. 18, 1952, No. 99, p. 188; Apr. 23, 1952, No. 134, p. 274; renumbered as § 8 and amended May 14, 1952, No. 456, §§ 7, 8, 15; June 9, 1956, No. 27, p. 78; June 19, 1957, No. 77; June 18, 1958, No. 47, p. 82, § 3; Dec. 29, 1997, No. 203, § 5; Dec. 14, 2001, No. 163, § 1; Dec. 26, 2006, No. 293, § 1.