Giant centre construction could begin within five months

THE largest commercial and leisure centre in Andalucia, planned in Torremolinos by a British group, is nearer than ever to becoming a reality.

As the group, Intu Properties, waits for final details to be ironed out, the council has announced that it hopes to have changes to the PGOU land and urban development plan to allow work to go ahead approved at its November plenary session.

The project, started in 2005 but subject to bureaucratic delays ever since, is for a giant centre on a 195,000 square metre plot in the Molino del Viento area near the Palacio de Congresos, and boasts a year-round ski slope and giant wave pool for surfers as some of its main attractions.

If the PGOU changes are approved next month and the Junta de Andalucia regional government doesn’t reject them, as it has done five times in the past due, machines could begin to roll in during the first quarter of 2016 and the work could be finished by 2018.

The developers, who are busy signing deals with companies interested in moving in (the first of which is Hamleys British toy stores, which will be opening their first shop in Spain in Torremolinos), have announced they will be investing €400 million in the centre and it will create an estimated 3,000 jobs.