The intention to build a tourist and leisure complex dedicated to “extreme sports” in Coín is moving forward slowly but surely. Since elDiario.es Andalucía revealed the existence of the project approved by the government of Juan Manuel Moreno as an investment of “strategic interest” for the autonomous community, the promoter Nature Call Initiatives (integrated into the holding company led by Jaime and Javier Ardid Martínez-Bordiú (Franco’s great-grandchildren) launched an intense campaign to convince neighbors, the media and political parties of its advantages. At the same time, he promoted the administrative procedures to realize his idea. Much of the Coina society, opposition and environmental groups are that this affects the aquifer on which it would be placed.
The ambition of the proposal is reflected in the name: Transcendence. To integrate it, it is first necessary to modify the Partial Plan which currently organizes the area of Los Llanos de Matagallar. For now, and since 1996, it is expected that the land will one day be used for residential purposes. At the request of Nature Call, the municipality has initiated steps to change this destination, for which approval from the regional administration is required.
In this context, the Junta de Andalucía published on July 30 the document that this media reported this week. A “scope document” which aims to define the environmental study that, within 15 months, the promoter must present. And this is where the regional administration began to mark the ground: the final project will have to be very “precise” about how it will be supplied with water, it will have to provide consumption data, and it will not be able to increase the “pressure” on the aquifer.
Despite the warning, the promoter says she is satisfied with the framework set by the Council. “The technicians did not find any incompatibilities of the project with the chosen location,” he celebrated in a note distributed to the media. This was not the time: the scoping document sets the framework, but the review will come when Nature Call presents the environmental study, which will be examined in detail with the allegations it receives.
This is what we know about the project and its social impact during the year following its presentation.
The project: extreme sports, adventure and nature
Initially, Ardid Martínez-Bordiú’s idea was to build a “High Performance Center in Extreme Sports and E-sports”, where they could practice wakeboarding, kitesurfing, skateboarding, e-buggies, mountain biking, rafting, abseiling or basing. show jumping, in addition to e-sports, as described in the declaration of strategic interest of the Junta de Andalucía, revealed through this means last September. The sports offering was divided into five “worlds” inspired by classical Greece: Water World; World Earth; World of Fire; Aerial world; and Fifth Element. Additionally, there would be a “Kids World” and public spaces with restaurants, convention space, spa/fitness, club/coworking/think tank and other public spaces.
In Coín, many raised eyebrows at some of the planned activities. Placing a wave pool on the aquifer in the current context of drought and restrictions for the population and the historical economics of irrigation which identifies the area generates a discharge. Thus, from the start, the developers reinforced their proposal with promises of sustainability: natural or recycled materials, sewage treatment plant, condensation systems, construction on wooden stilts to avoid damaging the ground and subsoil, where the aquifer is located.
In its latest press release, the promoter seems to abandon its commitment to extreme sports, which is precisely what the Andalusian government has used to justify its innovative character and, therefore, its “strategic” potential. Today they call it the “Coín Ecotourism, Adventure Sports and Nature Project”. This is part of the intense work of recent months to convey the so-called sustainable commitment of the project, which is presented as an opportunity for improvement. “A before and after of sustainable tourism in Andalusia”, according to its promotional material.
In total, the complex would occupy almost 1.1 million square meters, of which 107,000 were built: 47,000 square meters for facilities and 60,000 for “tourist accommodation to support sporting activity”. There would be 510 independent tourist residences, including two 1,000 square meter villas. In addition, there would be a 33,000 square meter “village” with “main restaurants” in the central area and a 57,000 square meter parking lot.
The investment planned by Nature Call, which is committed to prioritizing the local economy in terms of hiring, is 267 million euros.
The promoters’ businesses: the Ardid Martínez-Bordiú family
The number of housing units planned is lower than what the current partial plan now allows (900). However, its exclusively tourist destination fuels the suspicion of part of the city that sport (whether extreme, adventure or nature) is only the attraction of another urban planning operation.
The promoter contributes to this hypothesis. Nature Call, with a share capital of four million euros, has as sole partner Ard-Id Investment & Development, SL, the family holding company of the children of Mariola Martínez-Bordiú, the second granddaughter of Francisco Franco, and Rafael Ardid , grandson of a Republican general. Its usual activity is the luxury residential market. The corporate purpose of the parent company is the promotion, construction and rental of real estate as well as the operation of hotels, aparthotels and hospitality establishments. They are, for example, behind the Only You hotel located in the rehabilitated historic La Equitativa building in Málaga, whose inauguration took place in the presence of Juan Manuel Moreno himself.
After obtaining a state guarantee for losses accumulated during the pandemic, the family sold one of its most emblematic properties, a five-star hotel in the heart of the Salamanca district, for 114 million euros and shortly after acquired a seven-story property located for 56 million euros at number 53 Velázquez Street in Madrid. After evicting the tenants, they are transforming the property to offer 13 luxury homes, including seven in 2023, for a total of 57.7 million, according to El Confidencial.
Resistance to the project
The Llanos de Matagallar are a sensitive area. The land, located next to a vast pine forest which is home to sports fields and the former cinema town, is owned by Nature Call, but has never had any private use, but rather serves as a space for expansion and enjoyment for neighbors, who usually come there to walk or play sports. Almost no one knows with certainty how these lands, which were never fenced, ceased to be municipal, and over the past century their repurchase by the city has been proposed on various occasions. Since the 90s, it has been developable land.
Resistance from the neighborhoods had already caused the Aifos project to fail at the end of the first decade of the century. The construction company, symbol of the excesses of boom construction project on the Costa del Sol, ended up going bankrupt with 900 million euros of debt. Between the bankruptcy of Aifos and that of the neighbors, they ended the intention to build 900 housing units and two golf courses there. And the lands passed from Caja Granada (creditor of Aifos) to the Ardid family.
Protest against the Aifos project was once channeled through the Water Roundtable, which has now been resurrected to oppose the new project. In February, he was able to lead a neighborhood protest that brought together about 5,000 neighbors, according to his estimates. A fifth of the city. In a plenary session held a year ago, all parties (PSOE, Vox, Andalucía x Sí, Unidas Podemos and PP, which governs) supported motions contrary to the project. But the mayor, Francisco Santos, has already warned that “it is not that simple” to reject it, and advanced the line that the developer is now using: if the project fails, its promoters will demand compensation. Since then, the municipality has forwarded the developer’s proposal to the Junta de Andalucía.
The detractors’ main argument remains the same: the complex would extend just above the aquifer that irrigates Coín’s profitable orchards and supplies the municipality of some 25,000 registered residents. This is a particularly porous recharge zone, so the fear is twofold: because of the quantity of water required for such a project, which would have to come out of the water table; and for the possible impact of a possible leak on the potability of the water or of the seal on the recharge.
Nature Call commissioned a report from a hydrogeologist, which concluded that the aquifer has an excess of 62 liters per second flowing into the Guadalhorce basin. On the other hand, opponents of the project use another report by a professor from the University of Malaga, this one from 1997, which already warned that the aquifer was being exploited beyond its possibilities. Since then, the population has increased by 40%, subtropical plantations have arrived here with their intensive demand for water, and drought has hit hard in recent years.
They add what their eyes see. The Nacimiento Spring, located just a few hundred meters from where the complex would be located, once gushed 3,000 liters per second and today it is dry. A pump releases water from his intestines through what neighbors call “the fissure.”
