Aquabadajoz will open the water park this June. It is the idea that the four businessmen of the city have who bid for this municipal administrative concession in November. They still have documents to sign, but Paco Vicente, majority shareholder and owner of Salones Murano, believes that they have time to make the improvements that the water area requires to start operating this summer.
The ‘dry’ part of the park, as the restoration and leisure area is known, will remain pending for a second phase this year. They want to reopen it with some new features and rule out that at this point in the calendar they will have time to update them. As they plan to use them throughout the year, they want to open them after the summer.
Together with Paco Vicente, owner of Salones Murano and Martinica; José Luis Iniesta, from the Río group; Pepe Carballo Hijo, a company other than the distribution of beverages, and Enmusa, specializing in water treatment and swimming pools. The partners are waiting to sign the concession documents. The bankruptcy administrator, Guillermo Pérez-Olivares, trusts that the plenary session of this month of March will authorize the subrogation of the concession to the Badajoz businessmen.
Last week there was a meeting of the future holders with the councilors of Heritage and the Environment. Paco Vicente considers it normal that the City Council requires time to complete the change of ownership. “The administrations have their times and they must be respected,” Vicente settles.
The facilities built next to the fair and inaugurated in the year 2000 belong to the City Council. The last concessionaire, Aqualand Extremadura, entered into bankruptcy proceedings just before the summer of 2021 for a debt of 1.8 million euros.
The new dealers won the auction with an offer of 800,000 euros that was announced in November, although they do not inherit the debt of the previous dealers. The majority creditors are banks and the administrators reached an agreement with them.
The offer of the businessmen from Badajoz was higher than the initial price by 300,000 euros, but it must be taken into account that the facilities of eight and a half hectares are priced at two million euros. In addition to the swimming pools, it includes the restaurant area and the summer disco.
The future concessionaires kept the facilities in the same conditions that Aqualand Extremadura enjoyed. That is, they must pay an annual canon of 36,000 euros to the city until 2075.
Although the process has not formally ended, future concessionaires can enter to carry out refurbishment actions in the water and garden area. They are cleaning and pruning, although yesterday they had to stop due to the rain. They expedite everything they can to open in three months. The facilities have been closed since the summer of 2020. They have suffered some theft since then, but there has always been internal surveillance, so it has been maintained without attacks of vandalism or significant theft.
maintenance tasks
“We are trying to take advantage now to carry out some maintenance tasks and be able to move forward because we want to finish the conditioning in mid-May to start the water park in June. The rest will not give time”, indicates Paco Vicente. The rest of the facilities, where they want to make improvements, intend to open during this year but after the summer. The idea is to have activity throughout the year and not just in summer. “We still have a lot to do there because the attractive thing is that there is something in the central area,” he says.
Those who come this summer, however, will have an offer of food and drinks through kiosks and bars within the water area. The area that will be closed for a later phase is the one made up of celebration rooms and a leisure park. “We didn’t arrive because we want it to be something different when we open it and to show that we have done something new.”
On the other hand, the bankruptcy administrators maintain an eviction process with the company that has been operating the Aloha summer nightclub, attached to the premises, in recent years. This summer they will not be able to open, so the administrators trust that it will be solved soon. This, however, does not prevent the new concessionaires from obtaining the concession once the plenary session authorizes it, nor does it prevent them from opening the water park this summer as they themselves wish.
They will open with 50 employees and still receive resumes
The water park will start operations this summer with 50 employees. They already have part of the staff selected, but Paco Vicente, the majority shareholder, explains that those interested can still send their resumes to the email address [email protected].
The template is not yet complete and they hope to receive profiles that match the new functions to be developed from this summer.
The installations
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Water park.
The strong point of the facilities are the swimming pools. It has four, including one for waves and another for children. Between all of them, there are three groups of slides and decoration with figures of animals inside and outside the water. Open this summer. -
dry zone
An auditorium, a climbing wall, two lakes, a labyrinth, four rooms for celebrations, five restaurants, two ice cream kiosks and a souvenir shop. Added to this are the games of the dry park with slides and a nursery. In addition, there are two kart and skate circuits, and an exhibition of child-sized reproductions of monuments. This part will open in a second phase and they want to use it throughout the year as a center for leisure and celebrations. They intend to open it this 2022.
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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.