City council speeds up process for expansion of Plaza Mayor shopping centre

Malaga City Council wants to speed up the procedures for approving a new extension to the Plaza Mayor shopping and leisure centre, located in the Guadalmar area. The municipal team has called an extraordinary session of the plenary Urban Planning committee for 9am on Thursday (26 July), prior to the plenary session to be held later, in which it will initially approve the necessary modification of the urban plans (PGOU) as agreed by the city council and the owners of Plaza Mayor in 2021.

The modifications were approved in May but it has not been until now, with the new municipal team in place, when it will be approved by the plenary. In the urban planning dossier, the urgency of the approval is justified by the fact that the project has been presented to the accelerator unit of the Junta de Andalucía, "and its initial approval in the next plenary session, will allow the public information procedures and the request for sectoral reports to be carried out, with the consequent acceleration of the procedure".

However, there is still a long way to go before the modification of the PGOU to extend Plaza Mayor is finally approved. Reports must be received from the Civil Aviation authority, Aguas de la Junta, Carreteras and Ferrocarriles del Estado, and also one from the Consejería de Salud y Consumo. In addition, they will have to undergo a period of public consultation.

The companies that own the shopping centre (Plaza Mayor Shopping, Doc Malaga Siteco and Doc Malaga Siteco Phase 2), with the advice of the consultancy firm Ejecución del Planeamiento, have planned the extension of the shopping park and the luxury outlet of Plaza Mayor with an estimated investment of 105 million euros. The plans include a 14,000-square-metre expansion of the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet to the east, over part of the Mercadona supermarket car park, and a further 7,500 square metres for the extension of the existing Plaza Mayor shopping centre to the west, occupying part of the car park next to the Guadalmar motorway.

According to the urban development agreement signed with the city council in 2021, the municipal coffers will receive 3.8 million euros (divided into two payments), and Malaga city will get a 53,000-square-metre recreational and leisure park next to the San Julián neighbourhood. This will be built by the developers of Plaza Mayor between the junction of Calle Clara Schumann and Calle Rimsky Korsakov (between the MA-20 and Porcelanosa), and will include a football pitch. The works on this park are valued at 1,611,750 euros.

The project also includes the improvement of the road connections around the leisure centre, including the widening of the Guadalmar road in the section between the golf course and the access roundabout to the neighbourhood. The execution period for all the works (extension, creation of the park, drainage, services and roads) has been estimated at four years and an investment of 9,156,183 euros has been planned.