The huge increase in tourist numbers over the past few years has already prompted a shift in the residential property market at the Costa del Sol. Now a group of foreign investors are banking on this tourism trend to continue, for they have purchased a sought-after stretch of coast in Marbella to construct a luxury hotel complex that requires another 150 million euro investment to get off the ground.
Brand new Las Chapas Resort to start construction "shortly"
The project includes the construction of a beach-front 5-star hotel and 120 luxury villas at Playa del Alicate, a 170,000 square metres plot of land in Las Chapas, a district in Marbella. The land was acquired by the investment fund Platinum Estates Group, which is based in Hong Kong. The development will be controversial, because the plot is adjacent to one of the area's most important sand dune habitats and includes 600 metres of beach frontage.
The investment group paid reputedly 50 million euros for the land and has budgeted another 150 million euros to construct the resort hotel and villas, both of which will be designed in the style of a typical Mediterranean village with a central square, where restaurants, bars and upmarket shops will be situated. The new Las Chapas resort will also boast its own beach club.
According to Juan Luis Segalerva, who is a member of the investment group's Spanish branch, the group plans to begin the first stages of the project within the next few months and aims to make it the most luxurious in the entire country. For this, the group aims to bring one of the biggest international hotel chain brands to the Costa del Sol, a branded name as yet undisclosed due to a confidentiality clause.
Marbella Town Hall gives Guarantees to smooth out remaining legal Issues
Despite uncertainties over the annulment of Marbella's PGOU, the town planning regulations effectively cancelled by three rulings made by the Supreme Court, the group is confident that the project will go ahead as planned. They have assurances by Marbella Town Hall that, as the land purchased was listed as suitable for building in the PGOU of 1986, there should be no problem and guarantees have been given by the Town Hall, which was forced to return to this old set of PGOU that everything so far planned for the project should go ahead unchallenged. On this basis, the group decided to go ahead with the purchase of the land - and other foreign investors are keeping a weather eye out for any issues that might still throw an official spanner in the works at this early stage of the project.
The group hopes to have the initial plans drawn up in January 2016 to begin works as soon as possible. Platinum Estates Group is principally involved with the acquisition of upmarket residential and tourism projects. Although the group has already made a number of large-scale investments in other parts of Spain, this is the first time the group is investing in Malaga Province, not Barcelona or Madrid. When they looked for another investment site, Marbella was their first choice - and the land the group has acquired was one of the very last ones remaining along the Marbella stretch of coast.
The construction of 120 luxury villas should rather please the high-end segment of Marbella's tourism sector. Despite considerable efforts made by existing Marbella resorts to upgrade their holiday accommodation and amenities in recent years, the crash of the property market across Europe meant that little new construction has happened since 2008. For the local labour market, a large-scale development in Las Chapas is obviously also good news.