Project revealed for a new five-star hotel in Malaga city centre

The construction of a five-star hotel on the grounds of the privately owned Las Delicias car park, which is right next to Malaga's historic city centre, seems close to becoming a reality. Although plans for replacing the 4,000-square-metre car park, located between Calle Don Rodrigo and Calle Marqués de Valdecañas, have been on the table for more than five years, Catalan hotel chain Yurbban has signed an option to purchase agreement with land owners, Gestionpark Málaga, which will expire in July 2028.

The project shines a light on the hotel fever that has permeated the city council, with intentions to expand Malaga's stock of higher category hotels. According to latest designs, the new establishment will transform the area where the current car park is located.

The company behind this project is the tourist accommodation chain Yurbban, a Catalan group that is in the process of expanding across the country, after opening businesses in Madrid, Miami and Colombia. Its founder and CEO, Oriol Serra, has already stated that one of their objectives is to land in Malaga, which now seems likely to happen.

Last year they signed an option to purchase contract for Las Delicias, which expires in July 2028. Assessment by the city council's urban planning department is already under way. Promoters of the project have presented a detailed study drawn up by Benalmádena-based architect Juan Ramón Montoya Molina, who has been involved in other hotel projects in both Malaga city and province - the Ilunion hotel on Paseo de Antonio Machado and boutique hotel Teatro Romano on Calle Alcazabilla.

Seville investors also proposed a hotel project for this site back in 2019, but it did not come to fruition. There are several urban planning conditions that any project for the area must respect. The current urban development plan for Malaga's historic centre has proposed the creation of a central public square that would connect Calle Molinillo del Aceite and Calle Carmelitas. Whatever new construction is built in the site of the car park would be attached to the back of the buildings on Calle Álvarez, with a façade facing the new public square.

The city council's project covers the entire area and includes not only the pavilion and columns of the old 19-century public baths, part of which has been preserved, but also a vaulted structure of reinforced concrete that was built in the 1950s.

Considering that the new proposal foresees the construction of an underground car park that can maintain the number of parking spaces offered by Las Delicias, plus those needed for the hotel, it should take into account the archaeological protection of the site. The area is included in the general urban development plan (PGOU) as a site for protection, as it once formed part of Fontanalla - a neighbourhood from medieval times, which was located outside the city walls. The district was characterised by pottery activity of which several remains have already appeared in works carried out in the area around the church of San Felipe Neri.

Whether this new project for a hotel will be accepted will be known in the next few months. What does seem clear is that it would contribute to the transformation of Malaga's city centre, where work is already under way to set up the headquarters of an international business school. The institution will be located in what used to be the convent of the Nazarene nuns - a building annexed to the space where the hotel is to be built. It will be a training centre of the French business school ESSCA, which is expected to open its doors next autumn and receive around a thousand students each year.