It seems that the Bahía Fenicia, 7-start hotel project is gaining momentum, with actual construction work starting after next summer. Yesterday, for example, technical experts from the Banyan Tree Holding company, which is the company behind the project, had another meeting with the Almuñécar Town Hall to sketch out details.

This follows a meeting around the middle of last month with the Mayor, involving a delegation from the Thailand and Indonesian hotel chain, led by the Vice-Chairman of Banyan Tree Holding. This was the first contact between municipal and company engineers & surveyors.

The Mayor said that this project, which would take about two years to complete, was a ‘quality bid’ for high-standing tourism, not only for Almuñécar, but also for the whole of the Costa Granadina.

Should this project come off, and not result in the accompanying luxury housing going up and the hotel never being built – the lamentable modus operandi of numerous developing companies all over Spain in the last decades – then the Mayor is certainly correct in his assessment and the Town Hall is to be commended. Truth to be told, however cynical one might be, the sheer size and scope of this project preclude such a disappointment.

Recapping on what is involved, work on the Bahía Fenicia will commence in the second half of 2011, consisting of 200 luxury rooms, a spa and garden areas, built upon a 13,340-sq/m plot, together with a second plot, almost three times bigger, destined for luxury housing. This second part of the project is the part that has raised a few cynical eyebrows.

The project already enjoys definitive approval within the municipal PGOU, thanks to a plan parcial, but awaits the re-parcelling of land, which will take about two months, for the building licence to be awarded.

The luxury hotel chain, Banyan Tree, began operating in Thailand in 1995, and has extended its resort offer all over the world, with a presence in 23 countries, and soon to be amongst them, Spain, with the Bahía Fenicia project in Almuñécar.