Green light for a new hotel on Granada city's Gran Vía

The building, constructed at the beginning of the 20th century, is one of the avenue’s architectural gems and bears witness to the significant role it once played in providing a home for prominent families linked to the city’s sugar industry. Privately owned, it served as the headquarters of the regional government until the 2010s, before the regional government moved to its current location, which is also on Gran Vía.

Since then, the property has remained closed. A few years ago it made the news when the owners put it up for sale. However, before it could be converted into a hotel the land it was built on had to be reclassified as it was registered as public land rather than private, which was its actual status, thereby restricting its legitimate owners’ ability to use it for other purposes. This ‘historical error’, as councillor Enrique Catalina described it at the time, was rectified at the start of 2025.

The next step was the approval of the detailed study, which was endorsed by the city hall. The application, however, did not receive the go-ahead from the department of culture, which suggested certain changes to the proposal so that it could be accepted.

Work has been carried out over recent months to resolve these issues, and this has enabled the proposal to be referred back to the culture committee, where it was approved with the votes of the Partido Popular (PP) and abstentions from the PSOE and Vox.

As the experts explained on Monday during the debate held in the council meeting, the owners’ intention remains to convert the building into a hotel. PSOE councillor Jacobo Calvo has criticised the city hall for backing a new hotel in the city and has questioned the ruling PP's vision for the city due to its excessive focus on tourism at a time when, as he pointed out, there is a housing affordability problem affecting many people.

The councillor for urban planning, Enrique Catalina, responded by highlighting the positive impact that this type of use has on the area in terms of regenerating it and putting long-derelict buildings to good use and he pointed out that in recent years numerous five-star hotels have opened in the city, results which, as he argued, are the outcome of a commitment to ‘quality’.