The plenary session of the Benidorm city council approved this Thursday the awarding of the project and works of the so-called ‘Benidorm Open Arena’ to the temporary business union (UTE) made up of Gestaser, Urdecon, and Plaza de Toros for an amount of 13.87 million euros, with the favorable votes of the PP and Vox and the abstention of the PSOE.
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Additionally, the Generalitat announced this same Thursday an international competition to complete the definitive closure of the coastal facade of Benidorm with an investment of 50 million euros.
The contract for the plaza includes the drafting of the project and the execution of the works to rehabilitate the bullring and transform it into a space intended for cultural, youth, and social integration uses, according to the city council. The action is part of the EDIL Plan and is co-financed 60% by European Feder funds for the 2021-27 period. The facilities of the plaza, inaugurated in 1962 and with a capacity for 10,000 people, have been very deteriorated for years and do not host bullfighting events or performances. It mainly serves as a warehouse.
The project includes the remodeling of the arena to convert it into a multifunctional cultural space, the creation of a multipurpose youth center, and actions to improve urban connection and the integration of the Els Tolls neighborhood with the rest of the city.
During the plenary debate, the spokesperson for the local government, Lourdes Caselles, defended the joint tender of the project and the work by assuring that the technical reports advised this formula due to the complexity of the structural rehabilitation of the building and the need to coordinate the design with the construction system to reduce risks and optimize execution times.
The agreement also includes the approval of an expenditure of 2.7 million euros corresponding to the 2026 annual installment for the start of the works. In the same session, the plenary agreed to facilitate access to the contracting file to one of the temporary business unions that was excluded from the procedure for not reaching the minimum required score.
However, the city council rejected their request to suspend the tender, considering, according to technical and legal reports, that the legally foreseen causes to halt the procedure do not apply.
Continuous promenade
On the other hand, the third vice president and Minister of Environment, Infrastructure, Territory, and Recovery, Vicente Martínez Mus, advanced this project during a visit to the tourist capital of the Valencian Community, where he explained that the international project competition will be endowed with 3.8 million euros to design the action that will allow completing the closure of the coastal facade of Benidorm and complete a continuous promenade by the sea.
Together with the town’s mayor, Toni Pérez, the regional secretary of Environment, Sabina Galindo, and the general director of Coasts, Ports, and Airports, Marc García Manzana, the minister pointed out that this competition represents “the beginning of one of the most relevant urban and coastal regeneration projects in the Valencian Community,” with the total investment amounting to 50 million euros.
He emphasized that the Generalitat wants to attract “the best international talent to find an architectural and landscape solution worthy of a unique location like Benidorm.”
The procedure will allow selecting the proposal that best combines architectural excellence, landscape integration, urban quality, sustainability, and technical feasibility. The winning team will draft the project, prepare the environmental impact study, and assume the direction of the works, while the proposals ranked second and third will receive prizes of 30,000 and 20,000 euros, respectively.
The vice president explained that the plan is to tender the competition before the end of the year, grant an approximate period of three months for the submission of proposals, and have the winning project available during the first quarter of 2027.
The action will allow completing the pedestrian continuity of the entire Benidorm bay, strengthening the connection between the city, the landscape, and the sea. Besides improving the urban and environmental quality of the coastal front, the project aims to turn this space into an international reference for coastal architecture and design.
During the presentation, Martínez Mus assured that the Generalitat wants to “give a definitive solution to a historic problem like Gemelos 28, which for more than two decades has remained without a satisfactory response,” resolving this situation with legal certainty, urban quality, and the utmost respect for the environment. The two towers, each with 21 floors and a total of 256 homes, must be demolished, according to a court ruling.
The Supreme Court declared in 2012 that the authorization for the construction of this residential complex granted by the general directorate of Ports and Coasts, then led by the popular minister Rafael Blasco, was unlawful. The ruling held that it was occupying the coastal protection easement zone. Five years later, the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community upheld demolition as the only possible way to enforce the ruling, even knowing that it will be possible to build between four and six meters further back, as planned.
In this regard, he recalled that the Consell forwarded this proposal to the Ministry last March and regretted that, five months later, it has still not received a response. “We believe the time has come for the public to know what the Generalitat’s proposal is to definitively resolve this situation,” he said.
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