Five-star hotel and dune regeneration: Green light for hotel development project in Las Chapas

The hotel is the project of the investment fund Platinum States, led by the Indian Harry Mohinani, and the natural space is the Real de Zaragoza dune, one of the elements that make up the nine systems that in 2015 became the so-called Dunas de Marbella ecological reserve.

The dune regeneration will include the channelling of the Real de Zaragoza stream, with actions to protect the coastline (to favour its integration with the Paseo Marítimo), actions aimed at the protection of fauna and biodiversity and the conservation of the existing trees. It will also include the creation of a new area of public spaces within a comprehensive urban development project that includes a bridge to connect with the nearby Golden Beach development.

There will also be a new rainwater drainage network, improvements related to drainage and water evacuation, more than a kilometre of rainwater collectors, bicycle lanes, pedestrian areas, measures on the road network, public services and areas for social and leisure activities, as well as new electricity, drainage and telecommunications networks.

All this is the 'toll' that Platinum Estates will have to pay to develop (and revalue) its hotel project, which will involve an investment of 23.5 million euros, according to the urbanisation project licence approved on Tuesday by Marbella town hall after the project received all the necessary 'blessings' from the central government and the Andalusian regional government. "It is an initiative that has required a lot of technical work and consensus between the different parties involved," said mayor Ángeles Muñoz at the end of the council meeting.

In fact, the milestone of the approval of the development licence comes ten years after Platinum Estates set in motion its plan to build a resort in this area, specifically on a 162,000-square-metre plot of land bordering the Marbella Leisure Time Residence. The property will be operated by Grupo El Fuerte through the company Ritusa SA, after having taken over the operation of this space for the next 75 years, with the possibility of extending it to 99 years, in exchange for a 5.02 million euro fee to be paid to the regional government.

Over the course of this decade, the overall value of the Platinum Estates deal has risen from 250 million euros to more than 350 million euros. The project is no longer being developed with Marriott and its W brand, but with a higher-end company yet to be announced, and the number of rooms has been reduced from 186 to 150. All this will be in addition to 170 'branded residences', the new trend in luxury villas in which Marbella is becoming the European epicentre, as the CEO of Sierra Blancas Estates said yesterday, and which will have access to the hotel services and, of course, the beach club and the three restaurants that complete the project.

When all these new details were provided in November 2024, the Spanish representative of Platinum Estates, Juan Luis Segalerva, summed up his project on the coastline to SUR as follows: "It is the best beachfront in Marbella because it is a dune. It is not well preserved, nor clean, nor rehabilitated. We are going to have a Cadiz-style beach, but in Marbella and without wind."