Would you, a small business owner, ‘forget’ that you’re owed 10-million euros by the Town Hall and not bother to claim them back?
Well that appears to be the case in Almuñécar and one that is raising a few questions as well as eyebrows.
The Town Hall has opened an internal investigation that will comb through documentation in order to provide answers to embarrassing questions.
The facts are that a building developer deposited this quantity of money in 2005 in connection with its project within the Plan parcial Torre Galera; a project that was never carried out.
That period of time corresponds to the nationwide Building Bubble which in Almuñécar was fed by a proposed revision of the PGOU (Municipal Urban Development Plan). Juan Carlos Benavides was the Mayor at the time and had signed a series of Convenios Urbanísticos (Urban Development Agreements) within the new PGOU that his administration was trying to get past the Junta, whose approbation was obligatory.
In the case of Torre Galera the agreement was signed on the 14th of November, 2005 between the Town Hall and the building developer in possession of the plots. The agreement was pinned to the Town Hall approving a greater building ratio (i.e., more construction permitted per square metre of plot) on the P-1 Galera Development Plan.
Both the Town Hall and the building developer were set to rake the money in. The high amount of square metres built meant a greater plusvalia, which was to be shared between the two signatories at 50% each. The Town Hall would also obtain 28,500 sq/m, which they immediately sold back to the building developer for 522 euros per sq/m, whilst the developer received a concession of an 5,500-sq/m, adjoining plot of public land.
As for the form of payment, both parties agreed that the developer would pay 4.8m euros upon signing and the second payment, just over five million between the 1st and 15th of that December. Both payments were made as arranged. The remaining amount that would bring it up to 14.8 million would be paid one month after the final approval of the new PGOU.
But the PGOU was never approved. Furthermore, a clause in the agreement stated that if that ever were to be the case, the first two payments would be reimbursed, plus interest.
At the moment buildings are going up on the Torre Galera plot, but with the building ratio corresponding to the old PGOU (1987), which is still in force. However, the plot no longer belongs to the developer, which went bust and disappeared – it now belongs to a bank.
(News: Almuñécar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)