I enclose the following news item for the “Gazette” (if you are not already aware of it):

Those readers concerned about the effect that the proposed new building developments on the Peñón del Lobo will have on the coastal footpath between Herradura and Almunecar will be pleased to know that the Junta de Andalucia has recently placed an information board at the Cotobro end of the “Fishermans’ Pathway,” which has a a map showing the route and details of the wildlife to be seen. They have also placed a wooden viewing platform along the path, at a point overlooking the Marina del Este

Yours sincerely

M le Claire

The Mayor, Carlos Rojas, said, “Casa Garach is an emblematic building, situated in the centre of Motril, which is in an abandoned state, serving as a constant source of worry for the Council.”

Until now, investors interested in building a hotel in the centre of the town have always run up against a lack of suitable building plots designated as ‘for hotel use only,’ which has forced them to fall back on plots in residential areas, which is much more expensive.

“Thanks to the building work that we have carried out in Casa Garach, we have been able to stabilize the structure and protect the building in general. Now, the challenge is to modify the existing PGOU so that it can be categorized as suitable for a town centre hotel,” explained Sr Rojas.

He went on to point out that their objective has been to preserve the facade, as well as other protected elements in the structure so that the building would have a future as part of Motril’s cultural heritage.

However, not everybody sees it that way, as the left-wing, opposition party, the IU, have criticised the venture, fearing that this heritage building will pass into private hands, instead of belonging to the town.

“This is just another example of public land ending up in private hands, which is all the worse for the fact 300,000 euros of public money has been spent on it,” reads a statement from the IU, adding, that the only beneficiary will be the private company that takes it over.

The IU statement considers that it is unnecessary to create more hotels in the centre of town as Playa Granada already has plenty of them. The IU fears that the governing conservative party is in cahoots with a private company.

The Town Hall has responded to these comments, lamenting that the IU is ‘against creating employment and backing tourism in Motril.’

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

If it had not been for these problems, it would have been the first 5-star hotel on the Costa Tropical, having opened in the summer of 2008 – but instead it stands dormant, with all the financial investment in it frozen, which has been ruinous for the developers/owners.

At present the hotel is immersed into two court cases, although one has already received a definitive ruling, resulting in the annulment of the Town-Council accord of the 3rd of August 2000, which authorised the building of the hotel on greenbelt land. In the worst of scenarios, this could result in a demolition order.

Almuñécar has asked for a ‘stay of order’ whilst a (legal) negotiated settlement is found that would avoid this and allow the hotel to open.

At the same time the Town Hall has entered into talks with the Junta to dissuade this regional authority from challenging the municipal building licence for the 7-star hotel in Cotobro. The ex-mayor, Juan Carlos Benavides, had granted a building licence just before the last local elections – in which he lost the mayoralty, but it was a very rushed arrangement and subsequently faulty.

The Junta consequently took legal steps against this licence and as a result, the hotel could be tied up in legal knots for years to come, without one brick being laid. The Mayor, Trinidad Herrera, wants to reach an agreement with the Junta to avoid precisely this.

So, the Town Hall is working on two fronts to unblock the administrative blockage on both the Hotel Cercado de Santa Cruz, with its 77 rooms, and the Hotel Bahia Fenicia, with its 180 rooms and projected 200 luxury dwellings to be built in three phases.

The Junta, for its part, is willing to withdraw its legal actions against the Cercado if the Town Hall modifies its development planning for the area on which the hotel sits. So far, the Town Hall has approval from the Consejeria de Cultura in Granada and is awaiting a favourable response from the Department of the Environment. If Almuñécar does receive a favourable report from this department, then it can go ahead and change the land category.

The Councillor for Urban Development, José Manueal Fernández, feels optimistic about the results and considers that both projects can be freed up in the next three months.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

When Manuel Hidalgo and his mother saw the hotel going up, completely blocking his sea view, he was not impressed; so much so that he decided to sue the hotel. Nobody believed he would have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning – but they were all wrong.

Ten years further down the line the Supreme Court has given their final verdict, against which there can be no appeal. They basically, said, “Manolo, my old mate, it’s up to you whether it comes down or not!”

Fast rewind and we come to the 14th of July, 2001, which was when the hotel, popularly known as the Hotel de los Futbolistas, because several members of Real Madrid were interested in investing in it, opened its doors. But Manolo and mum had already started suing the hotel because its dimensions were greater than what the urban development permitted.

Years dribbled past and Manolo scored his first goal; on the 12th of February 2007 the Tribunal Superior de Justicia sentenced that the municipal building licence for the hotel be annulled. Furthermore, it sentenced that the ‘unofficial extra’ should be demolished.

On November 2008, the same regional high court sentenced that no appeal would be accepted from the Town Hall or the hotel owners – their decision was final, but there was one more thing to achieve, which was to have the modification to the PGOU that permitted the hotel to be revoked, which is what happened this year, if you remember, when we reported that the swarm of modificaciones puntuales that permitted hotels to spring up like mushrooms all over the town. The TSJA said that this procedure, which is normally valid had been abused, amounting to virtually a new, unofficial PGOU: 18 modicaciones puntuales had permitted an extra 89,590 sq/m to be built, which could hardly be described as ‘fine tweaking’ of the standing PGOU.

So, Manolo, an architect by profession, who has spent the last ten years brushing up on the laws that cover urban development, has announced that he will wait one month and if nobody has come to talk to him, he will file for a demolition order on the approximately 10,000 sq/m excessive construction. In other words, the hotel company either offers something ‘very interesting’ to Manolo or the bulldozers move in.

(News, Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

The site for these bores was the Peñón del Lobo Sector nº1 and will be accompanied by road access construction for the boring machinery. However, once the bores have been made and samples taken, then the ‘terrain must be restored to its original state.’

This authorisation from the municipal authorities does not include areas included in the servidumbre de costas; i.e., the strip of coastal land that comes under the authority of Madrid at the department of Costas. In other words, “Do anything that you want to do but don’t step on Costa‘s blue-suede shoes.”

Finally, the Town Hall also reminded the construction company that it must always work within the constraints laid down by the provincial Board of Culture, which safeguards possible archeological sites.

(News: Herradura/Cotobro, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

Paseo Marítimo looking West

The owner(s) of Almuñécar’s  Hotel Victoria Playa have purchased a plot of land on Playa Granada in Motril, quite close to Hotel Robinson, where they are going to build a 4-star hotel and multi-use centre.

The plot consists of 12,500 sq/m, near Los Mariscos golf course practice area. The bill of sale has already been signed and the deeds will be signed shortly.

It appears that the new owners will be ‘sitting’ on the plot for a while, but have the firm intention, they say to build a hotel of about 7,500 sq/m and a multi-use centre of 1,000 sq/m, which will be suitable for all kinds of events.

The company behind the Hotel Victoria Playa, La Sociedad Hoteles de Almuñécar, spent eight months looking around for a suitable plot reserved for hotels, before settling on this one.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

Courtesy of Motril Town Hall

The company that intends to build a marina on Playa Granada has now presented its viability report to the Junta de Andalucia. The Project has a budget of 85 million euros and would make a huge change to the prospects for this part of the town and tourism in Motril in general.

This ‘marina interior’ will be build on Punta del Santo, which is between the campsites on the beach road and the holiday residence of the Belgian monarchy. The project also includes a tourist complex, as well as business and leisure facilities.

The Public Agency for Ports in Andalucia will make public the project until the 2nd of September, during which time anybody who wishes to object to the plan can formally do so – the plans will be on display in the central offices in Sevilla or in the Delegación de Obras Públicas in Granada.

The viability study is the first step in the administrative procedure, even though Marina Playa Granada has been working with local administrative bodies for the last two years. The next step will be the drawing up of the ante-project at the beginning of next year, culminating in the actual building work beginning in two years from now, if there are no hiccups. The actual building phase is projected to last 18 months.

Of the budget, 40m will actually go on building the marina, whilst the remaining 45m will be destined for the building of a tourist complex and the business and leisure facilities. The future manager of the marina, Luis Aribayos, says that the funds are already found with bank guarantees issued.

In fact, the Marina Playa Granada consortium is made up of 147 Granada businesses, including CajaGranada and Caja Rural.

So there you have it; if all goes according to plan, Motril will have a leisure port-cum-marina in four years time!

The marina will have 800 berths, as well as shops specialising in nautical equipment and supplies. There will also be a 4-star hotel, as well as leisure facilities.

Being a ‘marina interior’ the marina will only occupy about 50 metres of beach, having a channel leading from the sea to the marina facilities, which will be set slightly back inland.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

At the beginning of the summer season, hotels along the coast made their calculations on the coming period with a certain optimism – they were reasoning that with the troubles in North Africa more Spaniards would opt for national holidays.

Admittedly, the summer had long been reduced to just a six weeks, even though the climate gives us three full months of guaranteed summer weather, but at least those six weeks would be busy…

But, so far, it hasn’t turned out as hoped.

According to the Spokesman for the Asociacion de Hoteleros de la Costa Tropical, Rafael Lamelas, the first fortnight of August had an average of 62% hotel occupation, which is seven or eight per cent down on last year.

The truth is that the 15th of August is the top summer ‘holiday’ and this year it falls on a Monday, making a 3-day bank holiday… if you can’t fill your hotel 100% at least one of those three nights, then things aren’t looking up.

The drive to attract guests has employed ‘special offers’ that were unimaginable in other times, but even so, the crisis in Spanish consumer spending in 2011 is relentless.

The Internet is having a noticeable affect on hotel offers: there are so many popular sites that specialise in low-cost offers that potential customers are making their choices as to whether they are going on holiday, or not, on last minute ‘bargains’ cropping up, so hotels find themselves having to make ‘juicier’ last minute offers to fill their rooms.

One such offer is for couples, where one of the two has a 50% discount. Antonio Molino, who is the manager of Hotel Bahia Tropical and Bahia Almunecar, says that he has been offered just 75 euros per night over the ‘big weekend’ when the normal price is 132 euros.

The big concern is that July and August are supposed to be surplus-generating months, on which to pad out the leaner, off-season ones, but if hotels have to bear such cuts to earnings in the summer, in order to attract trade, then the winter does not bode well.

(News: Hotels, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

The police had received an ‘avalanche’ of calls from residents and tourists alike around 8pm, expressing alarm about a young male who was allegedly walking around, displaying ‘his erect penis.’

The arrested man, who comes from Granada, was first seen and reported around Playa Calabajio (commonly known as the Galera, just below Hotel Playacalida in Taramay). Calls were then received from anxious and annoyed callers near the Tesorillo. At one point he was reported as, “masturbating in front of a group of girls in their very early teens.”

The Guardia Civil caught up with the man and arrested him in fraganti (red handed). Members of the public immediately identified the man and literally applauded the the Guardia Civil for their rapid intervention.

After that, the evening’s entertainment continued at the fairground…

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)