Paramount Park Murcia: is financial engineering the solution

Spanish press report that Michael Bartok met with President Valcárcel on Tuesday

Coverage of the presentation of the Eurovegas project in Madrid this week stirred questions about the progress of the Paramount Park here in Murcia.

Although the regional BORM published amendments to the special plan relating to the land itself this week, the big question as always, remains the financing of this project, or more specifically, is there enough to complete the project if it’s started.
It has been widely reported that Jesús Samper, the boss of Paramount theme park promotion company Premursa, is adamant that construction on the project will begin this autumn, but the question of how it will be financed still remains unanswered.

This morning the editorial column in La Verdad, a regional Spanish daily, reported that in light of the lack of investors willing to foot the bill for the entire project, the answer lies, apparently, in “financial engineering”, which in essence means that the construction companies involved would finance the work needed to create the park.

This is the same strategy used by Sr Samper in the Nueva Condomina project on the northern outskirts of the city of Murcia, although the current economic issues facing the construction sector make 2013 a totally different scenario to during the construction boom years when Nueva Condomina was constructed, and the current row between major constructor Sacyr and the regional government over the Corvera airport concession may also complicate this strategy.

The La Verdad editor commented that on Tuesday the owner of Real Murcia football club no doubt discussed these plans with Paramount Licensing’s executive vice-president Michael Bartok, whilst he accompanied him on a whistle-stop tour of the Region of Murcia.

Their first stop apparently was at the Palacio de San Esteban where they met regional president Ramón Luis Valcárcel and updated him on the progress made thus far. Also present at this meeting were Pedro Alberto Cruz, the Region of Murcia’s minister for Culture and Tourism, and Sr Samper’s daughter Patricia, who is on the board of directors of Premursa.

Next they moved on to Alhama to visit once more the site on which the park is to be built, and the new international airport at Corvera, from where of course it was impossible for Mr Bartok to depart as the facilities have still not been opened for flights and the regional government is now embroiled in a dispute with the former concessionary who built the airport.

Although Sr Valcárcel stated that it was “almost certain” that a new concessionary could be sought before the end of the month, other members of the regional government have given slightly more conservative timescale estimates, and hinted that summer next year would be a more realistic timeframe, although of course, negotiations are still underway to persuade the Minister of Fomento to relent in her determination not to open any more airports until she has dealt with the 14 billion euro debt inherited when she took over the department. The tricky issue of compensating Aena for the 70 million euro investment made into san Javier to improve facilities was still unresolved prior to the dispute which broke out between the regional govt and Aeromur, which resulted in the rescindment of their contract and left the businesses of Murcia without their new airport for this summer.

Persuading the Minister to close san Javier is the big challenge for the regional government, as Aeromur insist that the reason for their own reticence to open Corvera airport was the non-viability of Corvera should San Javier remain stubbornly open.

Potential investors, and Sr Bartok will obviously be keen to ensure that the issues facing the airport are resolved satisfactorily, so that sufficient numbers of tourists can be enticed to the new attraction when it opens, a date which Sr Samper insists remains unchanged, in the summer of 2015.

In March 2012, Pedro Cruz maintained in the Regional Assembly that the Lifestyle Park would open in the latter part of 2014, and the park itself would open in the summer of 2015.

As for investors in the project, no more news has been made public since it was revealed a few months ago that contacts had been made with possible sources of finance in Abu Dhabi, although Sr Samper has always maintained that the financing will be found.

The last official comment made by Sr Samper at a press conference was that contracts for construction to begin on the park would be adjudicated in the first 10 days of September and that construction would begin shortly afterwards.

Historical articles relating to the Paramount Park are located in the Alhama de Murcia section, accessed via the map box at the bottom of every page, or by typing Paramount into the universal word search box.