Spain suspends plans for creating a park on part of Repsol's land in Malaga

The situation has now drastically changed, after state-owned housing company Casa47 acquired Sareb's development rights in this area.

The transfer of these rights, as part of the national plan under which Casa47 is acquiring land from Sareb across the country to expand its affordable rental housing projects, has made the Ministry of Housing reluctant to proceed with contracting the development work for a project subject to several legal proceedings.

A year ago, the local government team confirmed it would put out to tender the work to redevelop the Repsol site in 2026 to make way for the planned 65,000-square-metre park in the southern part of the site.

At the time, the city council, which holds 56.8 per cent of the development rights (with Sareb holding the rest), took the project as a given. The local government team believed Repsol's owners' association would not have to wait for the resolution of legal disputes.

Developer Urbania stood behind the legal dispute, having opposed the conditions under which the municipal urban planning department had awarded the rights to build three of the four towers of up to more than 30 storeys, in exchange for 66.4 million euros into the municipal coffers.

However, following Sareb's replacement by Casa47, everything changed. In response to enquiries from SUR, the state-owned housing company stated that "the tendering process and execution of the works" for the development of the Repsol site "are subject to ongoing legal proceedings".

Consequently, Casa47 is postponing the site preparation, including the construction of the park, until the legal tangle surrounding this operation has been resolved.

"Once this has been resolved, the compensation board, of which Casa 47 is a member, will be responsible for driving forward the development," a spokesperson said.

Casa47 and the Minsitry of Housing now hold the rights to build the 34-storey tower that could accommodate around 400 affordable rental flats.

The development of the other three towers remains subject to several legal challenges. Firstly, municipal group Bosque Urbano has stated that the entire area alongside Avenida de Juan XXIII should be designated as a green space.

Bosque Urbano has three legal challenges pending a ruling: one against the auction of the building rights for three towers and offices, another against the regional government's environmental authorisation and a third concerning the decontamination of the land, which has begun in the northern area,.

Meanwhile, property developer Urbania is also pursuing two legal challenges against the city council's decision to reject the objections it submitted regarding the conduct of the auction.

Urbania, which has unsuccessfully attempted to halt, by way of interim relief, the acquisition of the rights to which it lays claim, has highlighted the legal uncertainty of the urban planning department's conditions.

The legal outlook for this project remains uncertain. The central government is now using this as a pretext to postpone the construction of the planned park alongside Avenida de Europa.

The now shelved redevelopment of the Repsol site is estimated to cost around 24 million euros. The development would comprise three phases.

One of these would cost 7.8 million euros. It involves the construction of an underground short-stay car park with a capacity for 687 spaces spread across four levels beneath the park area closest to the Dos Hermanas area.

The second involves the construction of all the roads that will frame the plots on which the buildings and green spaces are to be built, which also includes the section of Avenida Adolfo Suárez running over the AVE high-speed rail tunnel, with two lanes in each direction plus two service lanes. This part of the project has a budget of 9.9 million euros.

The third phase is the park and green spaces that will surround the towers, covering a total of around 80,000 square metres. The park itself, 5.9 million euros, will cover some 65,000 square metres and feature a dense canopy of vegetation comprising 750 trees of around 60 species, giving it the character of a woodland.

Read dedicated local reporting for Malaga city