The demolition of the Ibis Málaga Centro hotel, which was burned down in May, has erased most of the building from the Guadalmedina facade in a month of work. The base and debris still need to be removed, meaning the demolition will not be completed for another month.
The Ibis Málaga Centro hotel no longer overlooks the Guadalmedina facade. A month after the demolition began, the two machines working on the site, one of which has a large arm moved from Barcelona and equipped with claws, have already consumed most of the volume of the building, which was severely affected by a fire last May, according to Diario Sur.
The work is not yet finished. The base of the building still needs to be removed and the debris cleared, so the operation cannot be considered complete for approximately another month, which has been the timeframe since the beginning.
The property of the building, a company linked to the hotel group Accor, hired the Almeria-based company AGI for the demolition. The works are being carried out next to one of the busiest traffic axes in the Centre of Málaga, the tunnel under the Guimbarda corridor, which extends Avenida de Fátima towards Avenida de la Aurora.
Traffic in that tunnel has not been closed at any time. However, Padre Jorge Lamothe street and a stretch of Cerrojo are closed to traffic, occupied by machines, workers, and the accumulation of debris. For safety, the perimeter fencing is maintained from the bridge of Aurora to the southern area of the plot that housed the hotel.
The demolition paves the way for a taller construction than the one demolished. The property has been processing an urban planning file for two years to increase the volume of this hotel and the other two it owns in the Guadalmedina area, the Ibis Budget and Suite Novotel.
The operation is supported by a decree approved by the Junta de Andalucía in 2021, during the pandemic, which allows an increase of up to 20% in the built area of existing hotels if it means upgrading their category. The project drafted by the architecture firm Domingo Corpas contemplates adding 19 rooms to the 189 doubles (378 beds) and 47 parking spaces that the Ibis Málaga Centro had.
The document also anticipates gaining three floors in the two volumes of the building, which would change from ground floor plus three and ground floor plus four to ground floor plus six and ground floor plus seven. The delegation of the Culture Department of the Junta has already given the green light to the increase, which is still pending approval from the Málaga City Council.
Once the City Council approves the volume increase file for the three hotels, the new construction conditions for the plot will come into effect. The urban parameters of height and volume are attributed to the land, not the building, so the property that replaces the demolished one will be able to adopt the newly approved height.
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