ARCHIVED - Paramount Murcia, official meeting between Proyectos Emblemáticos and Alhama Town Hall

 Paramount Murcia, landmark official meeting in Alhama

 2011-02-12

It´s been an important week for the Paramount Murcia theme park project this week, as the project has passed the important milestone of being a much talked about concept, the subject of very little other than speculation and anticipation, to becoming a tangible business proposition.

On Monday morning an official press briefing was given at the Regions´Cultural headquarters, hosted by the Consejero for culture, Pedro Cruz, Salvador Marín, head of regional business development and the head  of Proyectos Emblemáticos, Jesús Samper who officially announced that options had been closed on the selected land, 1.7 million square metres, close to Alhama de Murcia.

This is the first official press conference given in conjunction with representatives from the Region of Murcia which confirms the project is up and running, every other piece of "information" written previous to this occasion, speculation, based on "inside sources." 

At the meeting Samper talked about the challenge of finding investors for the project, and indicated that he had received interested approaches from overseas investors, specifically mentioning the Arab and Chinese markets. This week "inside sources" said that he had paid a visit to Dubai to discuss the project with interested parties, although this has not been officially confirmed.

The Foro Hispano-Árabe de Inversiones, has been scheduled to take place in Murcia this spring, a convention which will unite government officials, investment groups, businessmen and financial institutions from Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Arab Emirates and Egypt, and it is hoped that there may be parties interested amongst these high powered and wealthy investors, looking not only at this project, but other investment opportunities within the Region.

Representatives from Proyectos Emblemáticos meet with Alhama Council 

The second act of great importance was the meeting which took place on Friday between Alhama council and representatives of Proyectos Emblemáticos, PREMURSA as it is now being called.

The Mayor of Alhama de Murcia, José Espadas, accompanied by the councillor for urbanism, Juan Romero, received Enrique Ujaldón, director general of  Bienes Culturales y Bellas Artes, together with  Santiago del Río, and  Patricio Rosas, both legal consultants representing PREMURSA to hold preliminary discussions reference the processes which now need to begin for the project to move forward.

The Town hall representatives affirmed in their subsequent press release that this was the first official communication of the agreement to purchase the options on the land, and subsequent to the official meeting with the Mayor, the consultants and representatives from Alhama sat down to begin work on the logistical planning issues which need to be resolved and undergo official processes within Alhama council.

Various amendments need to be undertaken to the Plan de Infraestructuras, along with plans of access and traffic studies.

The park itself will be smaller than was at first projected, but will still require substantial infrastructural support, parking for example. With targeted visitor figures of 4.5 million visitors a year, consideration has to be given as to where they will park and how they will access the site, so initial provision has been applied for a series of parking spaces with the capacity to absorb up to 60,000 vehicles on major weekends, and ensure that the traffic system around the park is able to absorb the increased traffic without causing inconvenience to other road users. The Town hall assured its residents that it would "do its diligence " to ensure this doesn´t occur.

With official processes now underway, the Mayor of Alhama said that Proyectos Emblemáticos hoped to be able to lay the first stone of the park within a year.

So what has changed this week?

The project has gone from intangible to tangible.

We now understand that this has been scaled down to realistic dimensions after provisional studies have been completed. Initial speculation was for a park on 6 million square metres, we are now told 1.7 million has been put on option, although after the official meeting the mayor did mention another 1 million square metres which is owned by Sierra de Alhama in the Casón de Carrascoy ( but not mentioned in the official press release.

Samper said in the official conference on Monday that 1.7 million metres was more than enough for the project, although it is likely provision has been made for additional accommodation and expansion in the future.

The investment in the park is less than originally quoted. Speculation and comparisons with other parks were that the investment sought could be up to 3 billion euros, but on Monday, Samper spoke of a figure of 700 to 800 million euros.

The constitution of the park is still unknown, Samper saying on Monday that "the park is the principal attraction but there will be other things" and he indicated that we could probably expect to see the conceptual designs in April.

For the first time direct reference is being made to interested parties from Arabian and Chinese business backgrounds, the likelihood being that there have been interested parties in the wings for a while hence the decision to close on the lands option, either that or the necessity to create a firm footing to move forward.

For the first time we have some dates to put on the calendar, 2nd December given as the date on which the land options expire, a date which Samper was adamant gave plenty of time for the necessary processes to be completed.

So, a positive week, a movement in the right direction and an end to the speculation about the location of this park, the first piece of the puzzle glued into place.

So from here, the puzzle continues, obtaining the definitive licence, finding investors and unveiling the plans, and maybe the pieces will all fit to become a Paramount picture blockbuster, made and created here in the Region of Murcia.

Official  from Alhama de Murcia town hall

Primera reunión del equipo de Gobierno con Proyectos Emblemáticos de la Región de Murcia tras el anuncio de la ubicación de la Paramount

El alcalde del Ayuntamiento de Alhama, José Espadas, acompañado por el edil de Urbanismo, Juan Romero, recibían esta mañana a Enrique Ujaldón, director general de Bienes Culturales y Bellas Artes; Santiago del Río, asesor y Patricio Rosas, también asesor y todos representantes de PREMURSA, Proyectos Emblemáticos de la Región de Murcia.

Los representantes de la Administración local señalaban que en dicha reunión se ha tenido la primera comunicación oficial de los acuerdos tomados días atrás en los que se establecieron los compromisos de compra de los terrenos de Sierra de Alhama Golf y anexos.

Según ha señalado el primer edil, el equipo de Gobierno va a actuar tal y como lo ha hecho hasta el momento en cuestiones urbanísticas, exigiendo previamente todos los aspectos que salvaguarden los intereses de los alhameños. En este sentido, ha aclarado, se deberá modificar el Plan de Infraestructuras adaptándolo a las necesidades que los nuevos proyectos demanden, como Plan de Accesos, Estudio de Tráfico, etc.

Una vez que ya se han determinado los terrenos, las actuaciones del Consistorio deberán discurrir en varios sentidos. Por una parte, la modificación del mencionado plan, los estudios pertinentes que, por ejemplo, arrojen los datos necesarios para determinar los accesos, y la modificación del PGOM para equilibrar la edificabilidad que se ve alterada por el cambio de construcción de viviendas a hoteles.  Los estudios y modificaciones se desarrollarán de forma paralela y atendiendo a todas las exigencias legales, ha asegurado el primer edil tras la reunión.  Espadas también destacaba la voluntad de Proyectos Emblemáticos de la Región de Murcia de poner la primera piedra del parque en lo que queda de año.

Tras la reunión de los representantes políticos mantenida esta mañana, los técnicos de ambas administraciones también han mantenido un primer encuentro para trazar las primeras líneas necesarias para los trabajos mencionados.

Fuente Ayuntamiento Alhama de Murcia

Paramount Theme Park Murcia

 The full story of the project including present day status can be found by using the link to the history of the Paramount Theme Park Murcia,