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The project to carry out a new expansion of the Plaza Mayor shopping and leisure centre on the outskirts of Malaga is still stalled after four years of procedures at the city council, despite being included in the Junta de Andalucía's strategic interest actions plan. This urban development involves gaining 14,000 square metres for the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet expansion to the east and another 7,500 square metres for the Plaza Mayor expansion to the west, occupying part of the car park next to the Guadalmar motorway. However, everything is currently blocked due to central government's concerns about the traffic increase this commercial space expansion will cause in an area already suffering from heavy traffic and frequent jams, as reported by local Guadalmar residents' associations.
According to SUR sources, the Ministry of Transport is still cautious about allowing the Plaza Mayor expansion. The government has stated that the traffic solutions provided by the shopping centre owners "do not comply with the distances, turning radii and lane lengths necessary from the point of view of road safety".
The Ministry is therefore calling for the presentation of "an access reordering project", which will meet the "necessary measures to maintain unaltered the level of service and road safety" of the section of the MA-20 dual carriageway running alongside Plaza Mayor and the adjacent land, located to the west of the Leroy Merlin centre, where a new business park is planned.
The state report addressed other projects planned for business and commercial use in the area. It offered a solution that would convince them to allow the expansion: the widening of the southern section of the two-lane Guadalmar dual carriageway, as the developers of Plaza Mayor did with the northern section five years ago, which allowed them to inaugurate the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet.
The Ministry of Transport has said that it could "consider as an alternative the construction of the road on the right-hand side of the road with the same characteristics as those already built on the left-hand side, as it is estimated that this alternative could solve the service problems caused by the project". In other words, what the central government is proposing is that the owners of Plaza Mayor carry out, at their cost, a part of the project which the Ministry has already drawn up to widen to three lanes in each direction a nine-kilometre stretch of the MA-20, from the Ronda Oeste to Torremolinos, with a total budget of 190 million euros.
According to sources, the shopping centre owners are currently evaluating taking over the road works in order to see the unblocking of the extension in the coming months. In addition, they are drawing up a design outline to add two more lanes to the southern section of the Guadalmar dual carriageway motorway.
However, in order to get the green light for the new expansion of this shopping centre additional requirements are in place: the doubling of the Campo de Golf road, as well as the construction of a two-lane road in each direction that will connect the northern area of Plaza Mayor with the airport road (the old N-340). This project, which will involve an investment of 3,952,120 euros, includes the construction of an underpass beneath the local train line that crosses the commercial area of Bahía de Málaga. However, it is conditional on the city council expropriating two Adif properties totalling 2,200 square metres with funding provided by Plaza Mayor.
In any case, the widening of the southern section of the two-lane Guadalmar motorway is seen as the definitive road solution so that other commercial, business and hotel projects (in the case of La Cizaña) can be carried out in the area around Plaza Mayor. It is therefore possible that other planned developments in the area may also have to contribute to a project valued at around five million euros.
The Plaza Mayor developers are already working on a 'microsimulation' of the resulting traffic to demonstrate that all the works they are planning will produce the expected results and avoid traffic congestion in the area. They also hope to get the permission from Aviación Civil in the next few weeks, despite the initial initial objection due to potential violation of the airport's easements.
The companies that own the shopping centre (Plaza Mayor Shopping, Doc Málaga Siteco and Doc Málaga Siteco Phase 2) have planned the expansion of the Plaza Mayor retail park and luxury outlet with an estimated investment of 105 million euros. The parking spaces lost on the surface will be compensated with new underground parking spaces, up to a total of 3,846. 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). Additionally, the city will obtain a 53,725-square-metre recreational and leisure park and a football pitch, next to the San Julián neighbourhood, built by the Plaza Mayor developers and valued at 1,611,750 euros.
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