The company that revived the Don Miguel hotel is to invest 59 million in a new five-star hotel in Marbella

Although the development is taking place on a plot of 133,920 square metres, the land affected by the special development project accounts for 7.91 per cent of this area, whilst the remainder remains untouched and is linked to the project. The hotel building will have a gross floor area of 15,000 square metres and will feature underground car parks. It will have 220 rooms and communal facilities including a bar, restaurant, spa, gym, gardens and two swimming pools.

The project will involve an investment of 59.3 million euros, and the company states that once the facility is up and running, it will generate – between direct and indirect jobs – a figure equivalent to 2.88 per cent of the number of unemployed people in the municipality. The business group, owned by the Libyan-born entrepreneur Bashir Megharief Dokali, who manages both Marbella Leisureland Investments and Magna Hotels & Resorts, has already invested 70 million euros in reviving the Don Miguel, the iconic hotel that closed in 2004, which it acquired in 2013 and which reopened its doors in 2022 as a family resort called Club Med Magna Marbella following a partnership with the French hotel chain. In 2015, two years after the purchase of the Don Miguel, the Libyan businessman announced the construction of a water park next to this hotel under the name Marbella Aqua Park, but it never saw the light of day. The site of the new five-star hotel is very close to the Don Miguel.

Plans for the new facility have been in the pipeline for several years and are still at the processing stage, although the Local Governing Board has already approved its declaration of public interest following the green light from the municipal planning, economic and financial, and infrastructure departments. In the General Urban Development Plan (PGOU), the plot is classified as ‘non-sectorised developable land’ and ‘common non-developable land’, but the General Municipal Development Plan (PGOM), which the town hall is set to approve definitively this month, as reported by SUR, classifies this land as ‘common rural land’ and permits its use for tourism. During the PGOM’s drafting process, the business group sought to have it classified as urban land, but the town hall rejected this.

Municipal officials assure that ‘the proposal does not affect land that may be subject to specific protection’, although the project will be put out for public consultation and has been brought to the attention of two regional ministries of the Andalusian Regional Government so that they may offer their views. However, the scheme does include environmental measures, the main one being reforestation with native species and the enhancement of the surroundings along the Arroyo de las Represas watercourse, through the restoration of market garden areas and the creation of footpaths and shared-use paths for pedestrians and cyclists.