The Motril Town Council has approved a change to the building category of the historic and centric building known as Casa Garach, which will allow it to be turned into a hotel.
The Mayor, Carlos Rojas, said, “Casa Garach is an emblematic building, situated in the centre of Motril, which is in an abandoned state, serving as a constant source of worry for the Council.”
Until now, investors interested in building a hotel in the centre of the town have always run up against a lack of suitable building plots designated as ‘for hotel use only,’ which has forced them to fall back on plots in residential areas, which is much more expensive.
“Thanks to the building work that we have carried out in Casa Garach, we have been able to stabilize the structure and protect the building in general. Now, the challenge is to modify the existing PGOU so that it can be categorized as suitable for a town centre hotel,” explained Sr Rojas.
He went on to point out that their objective has been to preserve the facade, as well as other protected elements in the structure so that the building would have a future as part of Motril’s cultural heritage.
However, not everybody sees it that way, as the left-wing, opposition party, the IU, have criticised the venture, fearing that this heritage building will pass into private hands, instead of belonging to the town.
“This is just another example of public land ending up in private hands, which is all the worse for the fact 300,000 euros of public money has been spent on it,” reads a statement from the IU, adding, that the only beneficiary will be the private company that takes it over.
The IU statement considers that it is unnecessary to create more hotels in the centre of town as Playa Granada already has plenty of them. The IU fears that the governing conservative party is in cahoots with a private company.
The Town Hall has responded to these comments, lamenting that the IU is ‘against creating employment and backing tourism in Motril.’
(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)