This project to integrate the city with the bay’s water mirror -occupied by three sports marinas- will be carried out in parallel with the municipal drive to redevelop the rest of the area into public land-maritime domain, such as the Paseo de la Libertad -with an avenue that will be removed to gain pedestrian space-, the Eras de la Sal, the amusement fair, the handicraft market -the popular hippies- and the Levante dock promenade, in addition to the demolition of the fence that currently separates the urban area from the port area.
It is expected that the concession of the large area and the municipal projects will be presented jointly This saturday by the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig (PSPV-PSOE), the conseller Arcadi Spain and the mayor of Torrevieja, Eduardo Dolón (PP) with a visit to the port and an act in the Municipal Auditorium Theater, as sources from the Consell have confirmed to INFORMATION.
The initiative of the commercial area of the well-known businessman from Vega Baja Enrique Riquelme, contemplates the construction of a one-storey underground car park with an approximate capacity for 500-600 vehicles, multiplexes, an American bowling alley, plus franchises and local hospitality businesses, to which the employer has offered to enter the proposal. Initially, commercial use other than nautical is not authorized. The main buildings, with a height equivalent to 12 meters, will occupy 6,171 square meters distributed over a larger space of about 30,000 square meters between the cliff of the bay that is now used by the Fishermen’s Guild by concession, and the current open-air car park and the fairground.
As an improvement to the project, the Generalitat has imposed on the concessionaire to cover the cost and construction of the new fish market, for more than one and a half million euros, which will be located in the “fill” between the current ice factory and the breakwater where the floating museums of Torrevieja are located. Also the adaptation of what will be the main access avenue that crosses the port, and the integral rehabilitation with an investment of more than 300,000 euros for administrative use by the Generalitat itself and the City Council of the Customs building -something required by the port legislation that reserves that building as a service area since 2019-.
The traditional buildings of the fish markets erected in the fifties, the premises for the warehouse, supply and repair of fishing gear, the captaincy building and the Generalitat office for the port disappear from the port landscape. The future of the La Marina bar is not yet clear, although in this case the heritage protection criterion of the singular ground-floor house that this establishment occupies may be more successful than that used for other buildings, such as the fish markets, They have been part of the Torrevieja history of the 20th century. Of them, the technicians of the regional and local administrations consider that they do not have “value” to remain standing. In fact, they are one of the main obstacles to building commercial space in the very first line.
The concession initiative came from the businessman himself, natural de Cox and neighbor of Torrevieja. Not from the Generalitat, which is the competent administration to manage the port of Torrevieja. The project was released to public information last August, in the middle of summer, with a public consultation that, however, was only possible to access in person at the offices of the Department of Public Works of Valencia. After that period of exposure, in which only allegations were presented by Miguel Ángel Pavón in a private capacity -the local PSOE announced them in a press release but did not process them-, the regional administration opened the proposal to other companies. Two more firms, in addition to the one headed by Riquelme, presented their own offers, but not the guarantees to guarantee the viability of the works and subsequent exploitation. The Conselleria then commissioned its own project on the adaptation of the space to a concession of these characteristics.
While the concession was being processed, the City Council promoted a modification of the General Plan, the 109, that makes room for this reorganization in which, for example, the main avenue parallel to Paseo de la Libertad disappears to gain pedestrian space, but which also modifies aspects of the interior of the port despite being a matter in which the municipality has no jurisdiction, although yes, you must authorize the building and opening licenses. This is the case of volumes allowed for buildings,-which rises from the 3.5 meters and ground floor initially planned to a ceiling of 12 meters in the area where the leisure space will be built-. That same punctual modification discards the patrimonial value of elements cataloged as being of interest in the PGOU, such as the remains of the old fishing pier, of which the technical report of an architect says that the City Council “does not know where they are”. The City Council is planning in competitions that are of the Generalitat and also in maritime public domain land, so it will require the specific authorization of the Ministry of Ecological Transition to act in the Eras de la Sal and the Paseo de la Libertad.
The commercial occupation of the port, sold as opening of Torrevieja to the sea and its bay, It is an old aspiration of the governments of the Popular Party in Torrevieja. Award initiatives were already promoted in 1999, although that remained in a model of Calatrava that cost the municipality 600,000 euros. It was attempted again in 2008, processed and declared void due to the crisis, and in 2014, although without the endorsement of the Consell as it did not comply with the Community Ports Act. During the mandate period of the left-wing coalition government -2015-2019-, the Generalitat carried out the delimitation of port uses and spaces (DEUP) which is required by the Generalitat Ports Law and in which, among other decisions, such as preserving an area for fishing activity next to the current one, left the way clear for “compatible” use in the area where the project is now proposed. That left-wing government, in which the PSOE was, assured then that the port would be the object of a redevelopment -its current aspect of industrial use for the artisanal fishing fleet is not to the liking of the tourist sector-, but not of commercial exploitation.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.