Building work on the long-awaited 7-star hotel in Almuñécar will begin at the end of next month; March.

This news was made known at the tourism fair (Fitur) in Madrid at the beginning of February. Present at the fair was Niels K. Thygesen, who is the owner of one of the top Scandinavian construction companies. It is his company that will actually build the 230m-euro hotel complex, which will be unique in the whole of Europe.

The Bahía Fenicia Project was conceived by Mr Thygesen as a top European reference for a super-luxury, tourist destination.

The hotel chain, Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts has reached a deal with Bahía Fenicia to lease the complex for 25 years, with an option to extend. Furthermore, the architect firm behind the design is probably the world’s biggest: Wood Bagot, which is based in Australia and has a payroll of 700 architects.

With this sort of pedigree behind the hotel, the whole of the province of Granada is eager for work to commence, which will employ a work force of some 300 to complete. Once finished, the hotel is expected to employ around 600 in direct jobs.

If all goes according to plan – things invariably don’t, admittedly – it should be complete within 24 months; in other words, around the end of 2014.

Finally, at the presentation in a special hall within the exhibition hall, the Mayor of Almuñécar was accompanied by the Danish Ambassador to Spain, Lone Dencker Wisborg, a provincial-level politician, María José Sánchez, belonging to the Junta, and the head of the provincial tourist board, Francisco Tarifa – nobody likes to miss a good photograph…

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)