Marbella opens its industrial areas to host other facilities, from gyms to hotels

The town hall is seeking to relax the current rigid planning regulations and modernise local commercial areas, allowing traditional industrial activity to coexist with hotels, shops, leisure facilities and sports facilities. The regulatory plan introduces substantial changes to the use of plots and properties with the clear aim of revitalising the local economy, attracting new types of businesses and encouraging investment in the municipality.

One of the most notable changes in the reform is the explicit inclusion of hotel use within land zoned as industrial. Subject to the submission of a detailed study, those plots historically restricted to the construction of industrial buildings, warehouses or workshops will now be able to accommodate hotel establishments.

The local government team have observed how the old planning regulations were holding back specific investment proposals, including one that aimed to build a hotel on industrial land intended for workers.

At the same time, the proposed new regulations allow for greater flexibility in the introduction of compatible uses on this category of land. Facilities such as gyms, sports centres, leisure facilities or corporate headquarters may be established as the exclusive or predominant use on an industrial plot, provided that the buildable area allocated to these purposes does not exceed 50 per cent of the total urban area to which they belong.

"In 1986 [the year the PGOU was approved], nobody would have thought of building a gym in an industrial area, but today we see them in any town, so it makes no sense for town planning to hold back these projects," municipal sources said.

The redevelopment also focuses on making the most of and optimising existing buildings, promoting three major architectural changes: the conversion of roofs into functional spaces, an increase in mezzanine floor area and more efficient use of the basement.

The amendment to the regulations authorises the introduction of compatible uses on the roof level through the construction of attic-style structures, provided that they do not exceed 30 per cent of the floor area of the level immediately below and have a separate entrance.

In existing buildings, these structures will not be counted towards the total floor area, which opens the door to the creation of hospitality terraces, outdoor gyms, solariums or event venues.

Regarding the second area of optimisation, in buildings intended for productive uses, it will be allowed to increase the occupancy of the intermediate floor or mezzanine from the current 60 percent to 75 percent of the floor area. This expansion, which must be linked to the main activity of the space and lack independent access, will also not count towards the buildable area, providing more usable square metres for administration or secondary storage.

Finally, in cases where the regulations permit the extension of the ground floor's intended use into the first basement level, this space will no longer be included in the calculation of the building volume. Until now, it was counted at 50 per cent. This measure, therefore, directly frees up floor area for business operations.

In order to adapt industrial premises to the operational requirements of today's market, the amendment substantially increases the maximum height in areas classified as IND-1 and IND-2. In buildings designed to have two storeys (ground floor plus one), the height limit has been raised from the current ten metres to a maximum of 14 metres. This additional four-metre allowance is designed to meet the needs of modern logistics, facilitating automated high-bay storage, the installation of mezzanines and the operation of heavy machinery.

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