While Costa del Sol celebrates San Juan, Gibraltar announces Blue Water Marina Development

Since 23rd June the Costa del Sol's villages, towns and resorts have been celebrating the San Juan festival, marking the summer solstice with a heady blend of Christian tradition and pagan rituals. For thousands of years the longest day and the shortest night have been an excuse for revellers across the world to have a party on 21st June - and in Spain this happens to coincide with the saint's day of San Juan, or John the Baptist, which falls on 23rd June.

Students are also keen to celebrate this day, for it marks the end of all their exams and rings in the start of a long summer vacation. While massive bon fires were being lit up and down the Costa del Sol and towns like Marbella celebrated until the early morning hours, the Rock of Gibraltar announced a reason to be cheerful of a very different kind.

Landmark Development for Mediterranean

The Blue Water Gibraltar Marina will have moorings for super yachts, bristle with luxury shops and fine dining restaurants and will offer those who can afford it some exceptionally well appointed apartments and a 5-star hotel. It is the largest ever inward investment to take place on the Rock and will catapult Gibraltar onto the forefront of luxury living for the international jet-set. While Marbella's own new  marina development is staggering from one crisis to the next, Gibraltar will invest £1.1 billion into its own marina complex.

The complex will be constructed on reclaimed land on the eastern side of the Rock, adjacent to Catalan Bay, after government leaders awarded the project to a local developer Camoren Holdings Limited. The marina will include a super yacht only port, 1,000 affordable homes and more than 450 luxury apartments, a 5-star hotel and a new seafront promenade that will link the Eastern Beach with Catalan Bay.

Blue Water Gibraltar is already being promoted as a "landmark development" in the Mediterranean and will undoubtedly give Marbella's tourism chiefs something to think about. The Rock's new development is scheduled to be complete in 5 years' time, according to Gibraltar's Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo.

Leslie Allen-Vercoe, Chairman of developer's Camoren Holdings Limited, explained how the development will "create a huge boost to the Gibraltar economy and will generate many sustainable job opportunities".  The Chairman added that the investment would bring important economic growth and open doors for many Gibraltar-based businesses.

A Development to rival Puerto Banus 

The Rock's new marina will boast a large number of luxury shops, restaurants and cafés, but will also have a new and additional police marine base. A new multi-story car park, an outer seawall, a public pool by Eastern Beach will also be part of the marina complex. Government officials hope the development will attract high-income, high net worth people to settle in Gibraltar, perhaps lure them away for good from luxury residences like those found in Marbella's Puerto Banus, Golden Mile or El Madronal.

But it's not just the super-wealthy Gibraltar's government officials hope to lure away from the Costa del Sol. Already, the Rock has opened up a new 668-space car park right next to the Gibraltar border in La Linea. Called 2.5 million euro development, called the Santa Barbara car park, is located between Alcaidesa Marina and Avenida Príncipe de Asturias. The parking facility aims to deal with the high volume of traffic heading to the Rock and Los Manolos beach every day. 

A new roundabout and access lanes also aim to lower traffic congestion at the border. This is especially important, as a new shopping centre is to be constructed adjacent to Alcaidesa Marina. This is the first step into developing the area that lies to the west of La Linea. Already a smattering of new restaurants have opened along a new section of seafront promenade here. 

A third lane in the Avenida Príncipe de Asturias will also be built to allow traffic to access the town better without getting stuck in traffic jams heading towards the Rock. The redevelopment of the area will make it a far more pleasant place for residents to live in, where they can shop, dine out and relax by the seafront.