With a 30 million euro investment Malaga City Hall hopes to transform the city's main shopping area into the type of place that will appeal to future tourists and will enhance Malaga's reputation as a European city of culture, fun and historic treasures even further. The planned investment will double the number of outlets in the shopping and leisure district, a move that will not only appeal to international shoppers but also to residents from the rest of Malaga province, who like to come up to the city for major shopping sprees from towns like Torremolinos, Marbella and Fuengirola.
Malaga's City Planning Department has already granted a licence for the works, following the withdrawal of objections by the Departments for the Environment and Civil Aviation at the end of June. The two authorities felt that there was sufficient reason to object because of fears over a risk of flooding and close proximity to Malaga Airport.
From seedy Nightclub Land to Happy Shopper Paradise
The budget for the transformation of Plaza Brava, an area consisting mostly of run-down nightclubs and bars at present, will be in excess of 30 million euros. The project aims to demolish the outdated establishments and erect a state-of-the-art designer outlet centre in their place. The new shopping and leisure complex will be constructed around a central oval-shaped plaza and will boast 85,198 square metres of commercial space that will be divided into 107 new retail units, adding also a few bars and restaurants and a kiosk with an outdoor terrace. Works are scheduled to take around 18 months for completion. The project's planners aim for the new complex to be open to the public in 2018.
The news of the investment came conveniently at the same time as the World Travel Market kicked off in London to an announcement by Susana Diaz, the president of the Junta of Andalucia, confirming that the region had seen record number of tourists this year, with an estimated 50 million overnight hotel stays expected to be registered by the end of 2016. Malaga's new shopping and leisure complex expects to see an estimated number of 2.4 million customer per annum.
A new underground car park with 1,122 spaces will be built below the new shopping and leisure complex and the promoters of the project, Doc Málaga Siteco, have promised to construct a new exit from Guadalmar 'autovia'. This promise was made after the organisation, which comprises of McArthurGlen and Sonae Sierra, conducted a thorough study into traffic flow. A new exit should deal efficiently with the long queues that regularly form at that part of the city's road network to the despair of shoppers and commuters alike.
Getting ready for a post-Brexit Tourism Sector
The World Travel Market London is one of the most important tourism fairs in the world and as is usual for such occasions, an impressive number of southern Spain's authorities were present to promote the region. This included Javier Fernández, the Andalucian minister for tourism and mayors for the region's most popular and important tourist resorts. All over Malaga province towns are getting ready for a post-Brexit tourist sector, given that historically, Britain has been Spain's most important tourism market.
Susana Díaz confirmed at the World Travel Market London that her region would invest 15 % more to strengthen the brand “Andalucia” in the UK market, and would create new products to counter potential negative effects of Britain's exit from the European Union.