The Governing Board of the Arrecife City Council, in its meeting this Wednesday, has approved granting the mandatory urban planning license for the expansion and renovation of the Mercadona supermarket opened in the Argana neighborhood. According to the documentation presented in the Municipal Technical Office, the food company plans to make an investment of close to one million euros.
The license authorizes the construction and expansion of 226.82 square meters of surface area (premises for a supermarket with 204 surface parking spaces) although, in the registered documentation, it is reflected that after the expansion, the sales area will remain the same. Specifically, the authorized sales room is established at 2,090.51 square meters, according to the favorable report from the Technical Office issued on January 24.
Likewise, the City Council indicates that since Arrecife is located in the aeronautical easement zone, Aesa also granted the mandatory binding authorization on July 23, 2019. The plot where this supermarket is located has a global surface area of 12,000 square meters.
The Consistory also recalls that the Ministry of Economy, Industry, Commerce and Knowledge of the Government of the Canary Islands declared the entire municipality of Arrecife as a Zone of Great Tourist Affluence in June 2019. A declaration that until that date did not include the industrial area where Mercadona and other large surfaces are located and that allows businesses throughout the municipality to have the freedom to determine the days and hours of opening and closing.
New private investments in Arrecife
This new investment by Mercadona, which has two supermarkets in the capital of Lanzarote, joins the authorizations granted by the Governing Board of the Arrecife City Council held in January, where the construction of new residential buildings, transformation of commercial premises and the expansion and renovation of an existing building on Avenida La Marina were approved.
Specifically, at the beginning of the year, the construction of a new three-story residential building and garage on Calle La Añaza in the Valterra neighborhood was approved, as well as the construction of a two-story residential building between party walls between Calle Jaén and Ronda, in the Altavista neighborhood. In addition, the legalization, renovation and expansion of a four-story building (with homes and commercial premises) to be executed in two phases on Avenida La Marina was approved.
The mayor of Arrecife, Ástrid Pérez, has positively highlighted these new private investments in Arrecife, which in her opinion prove that "companies continue to be interested in renovating and improving their facilities, contributing to the creation of employment in the construction sector, and new employment opportunities with the opening of new premises or expansions of existing ones, to provide better service to citizens".
Pérez, who is also the head of the Urban Planning Area, emphasizes that "in this 2020, investments are being consolidated in the capital with the consequent impact on job creation as has been proven in the latest figures from the Canary Islands Employment Observatory, where Arrecife has managed to reduce the number of unemployed people in these last 4 months".