Marbella Ábalos holiday villa and adjoining strip club give way to hotel
The villa became famous after the Guardia Civil reported that the former Minister of Public Works had stayed there for free during the pandemic
José Carlos García
Tuesday, 31 March 2026, 12:10
Marbella town hall has approved a project that seeks to turn the holiday villa where former Minister of Public Works José Luis Ábalos stayed free of charge in 2020 into a hotel. The initiative also includes the conversion of the infamous Milady Palace strip club, the premises of which stand just a few bushes away from the villa.
The house became famous on 9 April 2025, when the Guardia Civil delivered a report to the Supreme Court to denounce Ábalos. The reputation of the VIP strip club dates long before that. The club is known for reports that head of an English football team had used club funds for his personal expenses. In January 2013, Milady Palace co-owner David Abidriss was killed with a Kalashnikov submachine gun by a hitman in front of his home in Estepona.
The plot on Calle Palacio Alhambra to which both the villa and the club pertain is 4,881.88 square metres. According to the police report, Ábalos stayed in this house from 12 to 23 August 2020. He was supposed to pay 9,800 euros for his stay, but he allegedly failed to do that.
According to the 1986 general urban development plan, the plot is classified as urban land for single-family residential use, except for 480 square metres of parks and gardens. The project contemplates an increase in buildable area. The developers will be required to cede land for a public road, construct it and improve the perimeter of the plot with a sidewalk.
The town hall has stated that the project meets the objectives of "promoting a compact and efficient urban model"; increasing the tourist offer; "promoting the diversity of uses" of urban land; "optimising" the use of consolidated urban land and "guaranteeing urban, functional and environmental integration".
