National port authority returns Malaga port's skyscraper hotel project for modifications

The project for the port tower hotel has returned to Malaga after less than a month with the national port authority in Madrid. The dossier designed by the studio of top British architect David Chipperfield was sent to Spain's capital on 29 October, after approval from the Malaga port authority. However, the ministry of transport body returned it on 26 November, requiring several modifications.

As technical sources told SUR, the legal services of the national body that manages the state-run ports have asked for the project file to be extended with new technical information that more convincingly "justifies its general interest".

For the moment, the body has not issued an unfavourable report nor has it rejected the project. What it has done is ask for modifications to the administrative procedure. The port authority will now ask the promoters of the 144-metre skyscraper on the Levante dock - Qatari fund Al Alfia and Hoteles Hesperia - to incorporate new documentation and expand part of the technical and administrative justification. Once the dossier is completed, it can be sent back to Madrid for further processing.

President of the Malaga port authority Carlos Rubio said that they had been in permanent contact with the state body, both with the presidency and with the technical services. These conversations have led to the decision to return the project to Malaga.

In the report, there is a footnote from the state ports lawyer's office that is generating controversy about its possible legal significance. This department suggests (not obliges) that, "out of a principle of prudence" and given that ten years have passed since the beginning of the process, with three versions of the hotel project offered over the decade, it would be appropriate to reconvene a project competition such as the one that led to the initial award to Andalusian Hospitality.

If this happens, the tender will have to be published in the official state gazette, allowing any other company to bid for the rights to exploit the plot. It is a procedure similar to a tender (but initiated by a private party rather than the administration). The legal department considers that this "would provide the file with greater legal certainty", although sources clarify that this step has not been agreed on. Given the social context of the project, which is tied up in the courts, a decision is not expected in the short term.

In any case, what has been requested is a strengthening of "the report justifying the public interest of the project, as well as the inclusion of new technical data that would allow for a more detailed assessment of the proposal and facilitate later stages of analysis by the state body".

The same sources said that the procedure remains open and that the request does not amount to a definitive halt or a negative resolution, but rather to an additional stage within the ordinary administrative process, after certain aspects were found to require further work. In fact, the national port authority has not examined the substance of the project or questioned its content. It has focused its analysis solely on procedural matters.

In any case, this is a moral victory for the groups opposed to this infrastructure: the political parties of the municipal opposition, residential platform Defendamos Nuestro Horizonte and Academia de San Telmo. They have been warning that the so-called "general interest", which is key for the lower house to lift the veto on hotel construction on port land, has not been justified, given the broad public opposition to this controversial initiative.

It is clear to anyone who closely follows this process that the timetable for the action is in fact subject to the resolution of the two contentious-administrative appeals that are currently under way (one by Defendamos Nuestro Horizonte and another by Academia de San Telmo). Therefore, pending the drafting of the new technical reports, the port authority will have to wait for both rulings before any further progress is made in the proceedings.

In theory, the new scenario means a halt in the proceedings for the luxury hotel designed by Pritzker Prize winner David Chipperfield, as well as for the reform of the Levante quay, for which there is currently no definite timeline, as it depends, above all, on the courts.