Planned expansion of Tivoli World held up by legal dispute between former and current owners

The planned expansion of Tivoli World, the iconic amusement park in Arroyo de la Miel, remains on hold due to an ongoing legal battle between the land's current owners, developers Tremón, and former owner, the Cordoba businessman known as Sandokán.

Tremón, which plans to expand the park to include leisure areas and a shopping centre in a 300-million-euro project, bought the park as part of a large operation which included seven million square metres of land spread across Andalucía.

However, Sandokán has since insisted that the sale had not gone through, presumably because of lack of funds, and the park remains in a state of limbo: owned by Tremón, yet run by a company affiliated to the businessman who in December started a five-year prison sentence for tax-related crimes.

Increased competition

With this project paralysed, and the imminent arrival of a major shopping centre in Torremolinos, business owners in Benalmádena are increasingly concerned by the lack of commercial spaces in the town.

President of the town's business association (ACEB), Rosa María González, has urged Tremón to resolve the issue as people are already going to Malaga or Fuengirola to shop and the problem is only going to get worse.