Barcelona World to be built next to PortAventura

[oriolat]

This is the biggest news in Catalunya since PA was built back in the early 90s.

Spain's Catalonia unveils plans for mega resort project

 

Spain's debt-ridden Catalonia region unveiled plans Friday for a 4.8-billion-euro ($6.0 billion) "Barcelona World" resort but with financing yet to be found and no deal signed. Catalonia revealed the project as its regional capital Barcelona seemed set to lose a battle with Madrid to lure US firm Las Vegas Sands to build a jobs-rich mega casino project, dubbed Eurovegas.

 

"Barcelona World" envisages six large tourist complexes near Port-Aventura south of Barcelona with 20,000 hotel rooms, shopping centres, a theatre, convention centre, casinos, services and offices. Each complex would represent a country or region: Europe, the United States, China, Brazil, Russia and India, and the project promoters said they hope to lure 10 million visitors a year.

 

The plan is backed by the Catalonia government, La Caixa bank, and the Brazil-based real estate developer Veremonte, whose main shareholder is Spanish billionaire Enrique Banuelos.

 

They were working "alongside international investors," the Catalan government said in a statement. But "nothing has been signed, we just have an agreement between the parties to go ahead with the project," said a finance official at the Catalan regional government. "We are looking for self-financing on an equity basis, which means attracting investors to each of the six complexes who will also take charge of construction in that sector."

 

Catalonia said the scheme would create an estimated 20,000 jobs, crucial in a period when Spain is suffering an unemployment rate of nearly 25 percent, the highest in the industrialized world.

 

"Barcelona World" is being made public as news emerged that Las Vegas Sands was likely to spurn Barcelona for a mega casino project.

 

The two cities have been in talks for months to lure "Eurovegas", with a decision expected by the end of the month.

 

This week, Madrid regional government head Esperanza Aguirre said she had a "positive intuition" that the Spanish capital would be selected. "Yes, that's probable," Artur Mas, the head of the government of the northeastern region of Catalonia agreed in a radio interview.

 

Catalonia's regional and sustainability minister, Lluis Recoder, said "Barcelona World" was in some ways better than "Eurovegas". "It is a developed and thought-out project," he said in the Catalan government statement.

 

Unlike the project pushed by billionaire Sheldon Adelson's Las Vegas Sands, "it is a strategic project that has consensus of the territory," he added. Since it was to be located in in a developed area with no planning modifications required, "the speed of execution of this project is greater than any other that could be on the table, not only in Catalonia but in the whole of Spain," he said.

 

Opponents of the "Eurovegas" project fear it will open the doors to a prostitution mafia, and they have denounced a return to the excesses of the Spanish property bubble, which imploded in 2008.

 

Las Vegas Sands, the world's biggest casino company by market value, operates The Venetian and The Palazzo casinos in Las Vegas and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. It also operates properties in Macao.

 

Source: Yahoo! UK

 

To sum things up, Barcelona and Madrid were sort of fighting to get the Eurovegas complex built by Sheldon Adelson. Since it looks that Madrid is getting away with it, the Catalan government has fought back by taking a step announcing this mega project.

 

It will consist of six areas themed to China, the US, Europe, India, Russia and Brazil, each one featuring a 2,000-room hotel, casinos, shops and restaurants themed accordingly.

 

What's even more surprising is that this project will sit on the expansion land that PA have. In fact, the aim of this project is to rocket the numbers from the current 4 million to 10 million every year.

 

The whole thing is expected to be completed by the end of 2016.

Edited September 9, 2012 by jedimaster1227

[TPDave]

Sounds awesome, but the plans always do! Someone with very deep pockets and a very interesting attitude to risk will have to come along before any of this awesomeness happens.

 

On a side note, could PA even take 10 million guests a year? It's a pretty big resort but that's a colossal increase.

[jedimaster1227]

"Barcelona World" envisages six large tourist complexes near Port-Aventura south of Barcelona with 20,000 hotel rooms, shopping centres, a theatre, convention centre, casinos, services and offices. Each complex would represent a country or region: Europe, the United States, China, Brazil, Russia and India, and the project promoters said they hope to lure 10 million visitors a year.

 

Sounds like someone got a bit of inspiration from Progress City... The project has got a very EPCOT feel to it, and while I don't expect the it to come to fruition on the same scale as what was announced here (as these things rarely do), it is always nice to see a major announcement like this come down the pipeline.

[Meteornotes]

Spain's debt-ridden Catalonia region unveiled plans Friday for a 4.8-billion-euro ($6.0 billion) "Barcelona World" resort but with financing yet to be found and no deal signed.

 

Sounds awesome, but if it does happen, I expect it to be very different than this announcement. That's a massive amount of money for someone to invest in this economy.

 

dt

[ernierocker]

Yeah, I read that same part you put in bold and pretty much summed up the rest of the article from there.

[gisco]

Interest idea for a country that is on the verge of bankruptcy.

[805Andrew]

I was in Spain this summer, Catalunya to be exact, and everywhere I went I saw people dining and shopping, and I thought to myself "what recession?". Build it and people will come, but it has to be built first. Major banks are having trouble is Spain, but La Caixa is doing better than most banks in Spain if I recall. La Caixa is also the majority shareholder of Port Aventura I believe.

[FJM8]

First look at the project, I hope it gets reduced...:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spanish Website: PAC

[rcjp]

^Well that would be colossal! It's always the same with these projects: if they get built....

[flotus]

On a side note, could PA even take 10 million guests a year? It's a pretty big resort but that's a colossal increase.

Currently PA seems to want long queues so they can sell more express tickets.

When I was there a few months ago, the park opened at 10am, but most rides including Shambala only at 11pm. And then only with 2 trains, switching to 3 trains at 12pm. So they had build up a long queue there which seemed intentionally and from what I've read this was not an exeptional day. Operations were not great either.

Earlier opening hours, better operations and the new Ferrari world should increase the capacity substantially, but 10 million is still a lot.

 

I'm curious however about the Ferrari Park, it seems very small on these maps ...

[rcjp]

^I don't think it is supposed to be very big. Isn't it only occupying part of a parking lot?

 

As to operations, this year I only went there on opening day and yes, many rides only opened at 11 and running two trains on shambhala and DK with up to two hour waits was not acceptable. I seriously hope they don't do this for the express passes as that would be just a low blow.