Demolition of illegal hotel on Costa del Sol moves closer
Benalmádena town hall has put the contract out to tender while Vista del Rey remains open and in the hands of the operating company
Four and a half years after a supreme court decision upheld the Andalusian high court ruling which declared the construction of the Vista del Rey hotel in Torremuelle illegal and ordered its demolition, Benalmádena council has set the bureaucratic wheels in motion for the demolition of the premises.
The town hall has put out to tender for over 800,000 euros the demolition of this hotel, located next to the Torremuelle train station, which today operates under the name of Vive Costa Azul. The work has a four-month completion period and the deadline for companies to submit their bids is 3 November.
The project to be executed was signed in December 2024: the work was approved last April and is being tendered with barely six months to go before the five-year deadline set by the civil proceedings act for executing sentences from the finality of the court decision.
The property, erected thanks to a 2001 decree by the then mayor Enrique Bolín in favour of Inversiones y Promociones R B, which according to the ruling should never have been built, continues to operate normally as an aparthotel.
The property, consisting of 61 flats with capacity for 122 people, heated outdoor pool and communal areas, is in the hands of Grupo Vega Inversión 2019, the same business group that operated the hotel Vistamar (Vivemar). This hotel was closed on 7 October after having been allowed to reopen in June 2024, when two court rulings declared that it was being operated illegally and had been usurped from its owners, who have never had any legal relationship with the business conglomerate and who have not received any rent since 2019.
The building is located on a sloping, U-shaped standalone site. It consists of four levels (a basement, a ground floor, and two upper storeys) and a partially accessible roof. It has a total built area of 4,673.68 square metres and a volume of 13,416.59 cubic metres.
The case stems from a complaint filed by the association of owners of the Torremuelle development around it, which was upheld in court in Malaga in July 2011. The judge issued an order for compulsory enforcement in November 2017, requiring the town hall to carry out the demolition within three months. The order also imposed subsidiary enforcement on the regional government and warned the urban planning department that “penalty fines would be imposed every 20 days that passed without carrying out” the demolition, in amounts ranging from 300 to 1,200 euros. The order was appealed and brought before the Andalusian supreme court, which ruled in the same direction as the Malaga court in July 2020. The supreme court made this ruling final in April 2021.
Benalmádena council said, “In the event of any opposition from any party, judicial authorisation will be requested before demolition, following the process established by the court.”
