Hotel boom in Malaga: these are the current construction projects offering more than 500 rooms between them

Hotel fever is still high in Malaga city which has seen many projects completed in recent years, increasing a supply that some experts still consider insufficient. After the recent openings of the two hotels located in the north tower of Martiricos (the Staybridge Suites, by Intercontinental Hotels Group, and the Hampton by Hilton, with a total of 314 rooms), and the four-star boutique hotel by the Catalan company Well and Come in Calle Madre de Dios (49 rooms), the city currently has six projects under construction, four of which are expected to open their doors during the course of this year.

These six projects will add more than 500 rooms to a hotel offer currently comprising 93 establishments with a total of 12,665 beds. Those that will start operating in 2025 are the five-star Meliá on the site of the Andalucía cinema, next to Calle Victoria; the Catalonia chain in the historic buildings of Puerta del Mar which have been refurbished; the one on Calle Plaza de Toros Vieja; and the Cristine Bedfor boutique brand on the corner of Calles Granada and Méndez Nuñez.

Furthermore, the five-star hotel that the Hotusa chain is fitting out in the Palacio de la Tinta, on Paseo de Reding, will welcome its first guests next year and also by 2026 work could be finished on Zenit's four-star hotel on a site in Calle Carrera de Capuchinos, an area where tourist apartments have also flourished.

But these projects are just a sample of the almost twenty new hotels that are currently in different phases of urban planning procedures to be launched in the coming years, in which Malaga will see a notable increase in the supply of accommodation. As such Malaga city hall has announced a study to analyse the possibility of regulating the sector, favouring higher level and category developments to the detriment of others with fewer stars.

The main hotel project that will open its doors this year, probably in autumn, is the one being built by the Meliá chain on the site of the Andalucía cinema, between Calles Victoria and Mundo Nuevo. It will be a 128-room five-star hotel, designed by the architect Álvaro Sans from ASAH studio, in collaboration with the local architect Carlos Domingo Corpas.

One of its main attractions will be the penthouse, where an outdoor heated infinity pool with solarium, bar and restaurant will be built. As has been the case with other hotels that have opened in recent years in the city, this terrace, from which there will be good views of the city centre and Plaza de la Merced, is set to become one of the most popular establishments.

The hotel, promoted by the company Kerad EB, which belongs to an investment group behind which is the former FC Barcelona footballer Gerard Piqué, will have a ground floor plus mezzanine, five more floors and a penthouse, with a height of more than 35 metres. Its construction, which is already well advanced, contrasts with the empty site left by the Astoria and Victoria cinemas after they were demolished five years ago.

The establishment, under the ME by Meliá brand, will have eight suites, 15 junior suites and 105 double rooms. It is expected to have a total occupancy of 290 guests and also have meeting rooms and a gym.

Another hotel that is expected to open in July this year is the four-star hotel being built on the site of a former car dealership in Calle Plaza de Toros Vieja, in the Perchel area near to the port.

This five-floor hotel will offer 95 rooms (eight suites and 87 doubles), for a total occupancy of 190 beds. In addition, it will have 40 basement parking spaces, 15 of which will be for residents of nearby homes. In total, the operation involves an investment of around seven million euros, to be made by a company based in Barcelona which includes Andrés Oriol Roca, the Catalan business owner who already has the Icon Malabar, between Calles Casas de Campos and Tomás Heredia streets in the SoHo area. Also behind this project is Francisco Martín-Consuegra, the former owner of the hotel that is now being built on the site of the Andalucía cinema, a project that he eventually sold to Piqué's group.

This hotel, which will be near to the future San Andrés marina, could be operated by the Sonder chain, an international company based in San Francisco, which first arrived in Spain in 2021. It has establishments in Madrid and Barcelona as well as a number of other European cities.

Work is also at an advanced stage on a four-star hotel of the Catalonia chain, in three historic buildings located between Calle Puerta del Mar and Calle Martínez, which will open in March. The project covers three of the four buildings that frame the Larios passageway, which connects Calle Martínez and Calle Alarcón Luján, next to Puerta del Mar.

These are buildings with grade one architectural protection, which were built in the second half of the 19th century and designed by the architect Eduardo Strachan Viana-Cárdenas, who directed the plans for Calle Larios and its surroundings. Catalonia is fitting out 74 rooms here, according to a refurbishment project signed by the Catalan architect Jacinto Arques Fuste.

The existing commercial premises will remain on the ground floor. On the first floor, in the building facing Alarcón Luján, there will be a small gym next to a corridor facing the Larios passageway and continuing towards the glazed platform that connects this building with the one on the corner with Puerta del Mar. In this wing on the first floor will be the breakfast area, next to the windows that look out onto Calle Puerta del Mar. It will also have a gastrobar.

The interest of companies and hotel groups of all kinds in having a presence in Malaga is exemplified by the project that began a year ago to set up a 27-room boutique establishment, with a two-star category, in the late 19th century building on the corner of Calle Granada and Calle Méndez Núñez. It is promoted by the hotel chain Cristine Bedfor, based in Menorca, behind which are Daniel Entrecanales Domecq, director of Acciona, and the businesswoman Cristina Lozano Vallejo.

The processing of this project began in January 2020, but the building permit was not granted until November 2022, due to the various objections to the refurbishment by the delegation of the regional Ministry of Culture. Its inauguration is scheduled for May.

The building has grade one architectural protection and, according to the catalogue of protected buildings in the historic centre, was built around 1871 to a design by the architect Jerónimo Cuervo. Its adaptation, initially designed by the local studio Santos Rein Galera Arquitectos, which was finally replaced by the Madrid firm BSV Arquitectos, has involved the recovery of some valuable elements such as a glazed courtyard, original tessellated floors, arches and an interior marble staircase, as explained by the architect Ignacio Sainz de Vicuña, whose studio also designed the conversion of the nearby Palacio Solecio into a hotel.

A five-star hotel by the Hotusa chain is scheduled to open next year, adding to the tourism offer in the La Malagueta area, which has the Gran Hotel Miramar as its flagship. It will open its doors in the Palacio de la Tinta, a building on Paseo de Reding that was auctioned off by the Junta de Andalucía in 2019. It was built in 1908, designed by architect Julio O'Brien, in an eclectic style with a markedly French flavour to house the offices of Ferrocarriles Andaluces, and in recent decades it has housed the Confederación Hidrográfica del Sur.

The project, which will generate between seventy and one hundred jobs, represents an investment of 30 million euros and has received a loan of 15 million euros repayable from European funds provided by Junta de Andalucía. The establishment will have 140 rooms, seven suites and nine junior suites, and will be operated under the premium brand of Amancio López's chain, Áurea.

The refurbishment of this building has been designed by the Catalan architecture studio Isern Associats. The hotel will have a restaurant on the roof, where there will also be a 700-metre terrace with a small swimming pool. It will also have a spa in the lower part of the building, as well as a 300-square-metre convention hall with a capacity for 150 people.

The hotel boom in the city is also noticeable in the popular districts closest to the historic centre, such as Trinidad and Capuchinos. In the latter area, new tourist apartments projects are planned, as well as a hotel by the Zenit chain, work on which has already begun on a site on the Carrera de Capuchinos.

Designed by the Basque architect Izaskun Larzabal, Zenit is building a four-star hotel with 70 rooms in a building with a ground floor plus two floors and a rooftop terrace with two basements for parking, a cafeteria, gym, games room and rooftop swimming pool, among other services. On the site where the work is being carried out, archaeological probes brought to light four segments of a water conduit from the San Telmo Aqueduct, and a 17th century cistern with a square floor plan, crowned by a dome, which may have been related to a pottery activity. The hotel project has been adapted to respect and conserve these remains.

On a site adjacent to the hotel, at numbers 14 and 16 Carrera de Capuchinos, a 25-apartment building promoted by Longline Capital and behind which are national investors.