Castellón resort “rejected” as EuroVegas site after last-ditch casino bid

A day after Castellón announced that it wanted to be considered as a bidder for Sheldon Adelson’s EuroVegas, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation said Tuesday that it would not consider the Valencia province’s offer to host the multi-million-euro mega casino project at the Marina d’Or resort complex.

Company sources said that “only Barcelona and Madrid are being considered” by Aldeson to build his mammoth casino, hotel and convention center project, but “thanked” Castellón for its interest, Europa Press reported.

“At this moment, negotiations are nearly at their final stage,” the sources said, adding that both Barcelona and Madrid still have a “50-50 chance” of hosting EuroVegas.

Castellón made a splurge on Monday when it announced that it was throwing its hat into the ring at this stage of the game.

Lluís Recoder, the Catalan commissioner for territory and sustainability, said that he thought Castellón was “a latecomer.”

Officials at Marina d’Or had said they only made a formal proposal to bid for the project, and were waiting to hear from the chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation so they can set up a meeting.

Marina d’Or and Castellón airport are two of the biggest construction flops of the past decade

Valencia government officials said they were being “prudent” about the proposal, but regional premier Alberto Fabra on Tuesday was less than discreet. “We are going to give them all the help they want, where it is needed, so that this dream becomes reality,” the Popular Party (PP) premier told reporters. But others, such as Lola Johnson, the Valencia tourism commissioner, and Javier Moliner, the speaker of the regional parliament, played down the announcement by acknowledging that the plans were still in their “infancy.”

Landing EuroVegas would be a huge stroke of luck for Castellón, which has been grappling with two of the biggest regional construction flops of the past decade. Thousands of homes built during the real estate boom sit empty at the seaside Marina d’Or resort, in Oropesa del Mar, while Castellón is also dealing with a white elephant regional airport, which has still not seen a single plane given that it is unable to obtain the necessary flight permits. What’s more, the State Agency for Air Security has found that its main runway is too narrow for airplanes to turn around, and will have to be widened to meet regulations. The subject of intense criticism by the Valencian Audit Office, the airport cost 200 million euros to build with an additional 30 million euros spent on advertising. It was the pet project of Castellón’s former provincial administrator, Carlos Fabra (no relation to Albert Fabra), also of the PP.

Marina d’Or president Jesús Ger has offered EuroVegas some 18 million square meters of land between Oropesa del Mar and Castellón, where he had planned to build the massive Marina d’Or Golf resort. Currently there are three golf courses, a string of hotels and hundreds of apartments built on the land, but the project, which was approved by the Valencia regional government in 2010, never got off the ground.

In 2009, Marina d’Or was 700 million euros in debt. Its workforce was reduced from 1,540 employees to 865.

Carlos Fabra, who remains the PP party leader in Castellón as well as secretary general of the local chamber of commerce, also came out on Tuesday in favor of bringing EuroVegas to Marina d’Or.

“It would be the end of an old chapter and the beginning of a new era for Castellón,” he said in a press release. Fabra went on to say that “its proximity to the airport, its 320 days of sun a year, and the efforts made by Marina d’Or provide the necessary framework to make this a success.”

LORENA ORTEGA Castellón 5 JUN 2012 – 19:29 CET

via http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/06/05/inenglish/1338917024_575153.html

Holiday-homes in least popular destinations expected to take brunt of price falls

Banking reforms being pushed through by the new Government will hit holiday-home prices the hardest, according to a recent article in the Spanish financial daily Cinco Días.

The new Government has introduced reforms to bring down house prices and get banks lending again, but some experts say the measures will mainly hit the price of holiday-homes on the coast, where around 65pc of Spain’s unsold new homes are located.

The price of main homes in Spanish cities, in contrast, has already adjusted enough, argues Josep Oliver, Economics Professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. “There is not much room left for price declines,” the article quotes him as saying. “Discounts of up to 50pc are only being considered for holiday-homes or unfinished new-developments.”A mismatch between supply and demand means lower house prices might not stimulate the market. “Whilst the stock grows in holiday-home areas, demand is focused on big cities and provincial capitals where there is little excess and prices have already adjusted,” explains Oliver. So if the financial reforms put downward pressure on prices, it might only be felt on the coast, especially the least popular destinations with too much supply.

Costa del Glut

Almost 65pc of Spain’s new housing glut of 800,000 new homes was built on the coast with holiday-home buyers in mind, mostly in Catalonia, the Balearics, the Valencian Region, Murcia and Andalucia, according to a recent report by CatalunyaCaixa, a savings bank.

The Valencian Community has the biggest problem, with 210,000 unsold new homes, or 26% of the glut, followed by Andalucia with 137,000 and Catalonia with 107,000.

The province with the biggest problem by far is Castellón, in the North of the Valencian Region, and home to the so-called Orange-blossom coast Costa del Azahar, with around 114,000 empty new homes, compared to 57,000 in Barcelona and Alicante Costa Blanca, 52,000 in Murcia, and 40,000 in Valencia province. That means Castellón, a relatively unheard of destination with a new airport that nobody yet flies to, is responsible for around 20pc of the entire Spanish glut of new holiday-homes. New developments in Castellón like Marina D’or development pictured below help explain why.

Marina D'Or

The excess inventory of new homes in Malaga province, home to the Costa del Sol, is relatively minor in comparison. According to local builders there are less than 20,000 new homes on the market, most of which will have sold in the next couple of years. The Costa del Sol is a mature market with good access and diversified international demand where almost everything sells in due course.

The Costa del Azhar is a different story. Who will buy 114,000 new holiday-homes there in any reasonable time-frame? What if prices get really cheap there? Will that help, or is there no demand at any price?

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Mark

via Holiday-homes in least popular destinations expected to take brunt of price falls | Spanish Property Insight Blog.