TWO MAJOR Spanish entertainment and tourism projects were in the news this week. The bad news for Spain, where unemployment stands at 27%, is that US casino operator Las Vegas Sands has pulled out of the $30 Billion EuroVegas project, which included six casinos, 12 hotels, shops and services. Directly and indirectly the project was expected to create up to 250,000 jobs and the news comes as a major blow to the employment sector. Meanwhile, locally the good news from Premursa Theme Park S.A., the company behind the Paramount Theme Park, is that they have finally received all the necessary paperwork and that construction on the park will begin in earnest in January 2014.
Ferrovial Agromán S.A. is to construct the first phase of the Paramount Theme Park in Alhama de Murcia, for a total of 52 million euros. The contract includes the implementation of the second phase of the Theme Park’s construction, which will take place simultaneously with the first phase. Premursa has also awarded the access, urbanization and construction works access of the hotel, leisure and commercial complex named ‘LifeStyle Centre’ to CHM Obras e Infraestructuras S.A. for an amount of 20 million euros.
The preliminary land clearance required prior to the start of building the access roads, urbanization and construction works is progressing as scheduled with the thinning and clearing of the land, a task that involves the removal of all vegetation cover. The thinning and clearing work covers 133 hectares, the equivalent of approximately 2,500 football fields, and involves an action plan focused on sustainability in order to keep alive most of the plantation, consisting of about 35,000 trees, all of them citrus: lemon, grapefruit, orange and mandarin.
By doing this, an estimated 25% of the trees will be sold as ornamental trees to both domestic and international markets once they are extracted, pruned, transplanted in tubs and moved into a garden centre. Another 25% of the trees will receive care and pruning work, maintaining them on-site for their reuse in the plantations, that are part of the project’s development. Damaged and exhausted trees will be turned into firewood for sale. Murcian company Viveros Ceres is performing the thinning and clearing work.
There is also news that Paramount may be investing in a 10% stake in the project, as well as providing the necessary licences and theme park building knowledge, however, this has yet to be officially substantiated as we went to press. Paramount Theme Park is expected to be divided into differently themed zones, each with movie inspired themes, such as Star Trek, Titanic and Mission Impossible. The ‘Lifestyle Centre’ is planned to eventually have two five-star hotels, three of four-star status and a number of three-star hotels. The resort will also feature themed shopping malls, bars and restaurants, theatres, a 3,000-seat conference centre and an open-air auditorium to accommodate 15,000 people. The project is expected to create at least 20,000 jobs for the region.
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