The Administrative Litigation Court number 4 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has recognized the right of a real estate developer to demolish a historic building that was going to be part of the 220 protected properties included in the Municipal Catalog of Cultural Heritage Assets of Arrecife, which has not yet been approved. Specifically, it is the property located at Luis Morote street, numbers 12 and 14, in the capital of Lanzarote.
In the ruling to which La Voz has had access, the Court responds to an administrative litigation appeal filed by the company Hormigones y Construcciones Arrecife SL. against the Arrecife City Council for **dismissing by administrative silence** the demolition request it had submitted in August 2022.
The events date back four years, when Arrecife City Council, under the mayorship of Ástrid Pérez (PP), did not respond to the demolition request that had been filed by the company within the three-month period established by law. Following this, the council determined that the request was denied due to administrative silence. In light of this situation, the company took legal action to revoke this administrative decision and requested that the demolition license for the property be granted to them by administrative silence.
According to sources from the Arrecife City Council confirmed to La Voz, the property was included in the draft of the new Catalog being processed in the capital of Lanzarote, but its effective protection is not yet in force, as its initial approval had not even been carried out. This property is part of the hundred or so assets that have been waiting for decades to be protected in the capital and now runs the risk of disappearing.
In response to the company's appeal, the council asked the court to dismiss its petition, alleging that the property was in a "procedure aimed at its cataloging." However, the court considers that the Arrecife City Council should have proven the "urbanistic or sectoral reasons that prevented authorization" and highlights that it did not provide the administrative file on which its opposition to the demolition is based.
The Administrative Litigation Court considered the evidence provided by the Arrecife City Council to be "insufficient" and, in September 2025, during the presidency of Oswaldo Betancort (CC), requested the Historical Heritage Service of the Cabildo of Lanzarote to report within ten days whether the property was cataloged or if a procedure had been initiated to catalog it as a Bien de Interés Cultural (BIC) or if it had any current protection.
The Court concluded that the property "is neither included in any protection catalog nor has the procedure for its declaration as a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC) been initiated," in addition to not being "included in the municipal Catalog of Cultural Assets nor is there a legally initiated cataloging procedure that leads to it." Along these lines, the court insists that it was also not proven that it "is worthy of protection."
The judicial decision disregarded a technical report provided by the Cabildo of Lanzarote, which documented the cultural value of the property, arguing that it went beyond the scope of the question asked. The court has given the green light for the demolition of the property and has ordered the City Council to pay the legal costs, valued at 1,200 euros.