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Two firms bid for planetarium planned for land next to Ikea

The building would be located between the Ikea furniture store and the old Benítez barracks
The building would be located between the Ikea furniture store and the old Benítez barracks / SALVADOR SALAS

  • The chosen applicant will receive the 8,800 square mteres of land for 37 years

  • JESÚS HINOJOSA | MALAGA.

Two companies are bidding to build and run a planetarium on the outskirts of Malaga. The building would be on land leased from the council between the Ikea furniture store and the old Benítez barracks, which is being made into a park.

The available plot is 8,800 square metres and would be given over to the chosen applicant for 37 years. Last May, the council declared that the scheme was in the public interest when it was being promoted by a company called AstroAndalus from Jaén.

As required by the rules, the project had to be put out to tender and now a group of investors from Malaga has also come forward with a view to running the new planetarium.

The planned building, when built, would be the biggest planetarium in Spain, with the town hall insisting in its tender document that the diameter of the dome in which to project the space images should be bigger than 20 metres, which is the size of the current widest in Spain in Pamplona.

The council also requires a series of other factors and uses to be added to the plans. It wants to see the possibility of using the dome to project 360º films as well as normal ones, in the event that the building were used as a conference venue.

While the town hall is enthusiastic, favourable reports are needed from aviation authorities as the airport is nearby, as well as the regional government’s Department of the Environment.

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