Marbella industrial estate to make way for progress

Marbella’s La Ermita industrial estate – which greets you the moment you drive through Gil’s proud eastern arch – has always been a bone of contention, not to say a blot on the landscape. But now its days are numbered. The town hall have just announced their plans to move all the industrial units to the new La Serranía business park that will be built to the north of the town, behind the La Cañada shopping mall.

Of course a major scheme such as this isn’t about to happen overnight. Especially since no demolition can go ahead at La Ermita until the business park has been completed. That done though, the 500-odd warehouses and workshops currently occupying the prime 1.6 million square metre site – not to mention the car showrooms incongruously lining the waterfront – will make way for green zones as well as residential and commercial areas more befitting the entrance to one of the Mediterranean’s most famous of international resorts.

Undoubtedly the largest and most significant urban redevelopment in Marbella’s history, according to mayor Ángeles Muñoz, “The administrative processes will begin immediately so that construction work on the new business park can start in 2013 or 2014. Also alluding to the ambitious Port Al-Thani marina project – the brainchild of Qatari sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani – she went on to say that “the next six years will see massive private investment in Marbella with capital coming from abroad.”