After Argana Centro had to close this Wednesday, after receiving a closure decree ordered by the Arrecife City Council, this Thursday the owner of the shopping center, Eduardo Spínola, has appeared before the media to ensure that its facilities "strictly comply with the regulations on building permits, opening and commissioning" and hopes to be able to reopen "as soon as possible".
The closure was decreed by the Councilor for Urban Planning because Argana Centro lacked a first occupancy license, not yet granted by the Arrecife Governing Board because the facilities presented some irregularities that Eduardo Spínola describes as "inexplicable" and "already corrected". The "problems" he refers to include the lack of a license to place the main sign on the facade and lack of paint on the ceiling of one of the emergency entrances.
The president of the Chamber of Commerce and owner of the Spínola Group assures that "new rules are being made" for his company because that first occupancy license "has never been taken to the Governing Board". He argues that he opened the shopping center last Friday because the day before he was informed that he had a commissioning permit and his lawyers told him that it is customary that, with the notification of the commissioning license, the first occupancy license is an obstacle "overcome". "According to the technicians themselves (the first occupancy) is something that no one is required to have, many people open without having it", said Eduardo Spínola.
No food area
There will be no supermarket in Argana Centro, at least for the moment. Eduardo Spínola denies that he is in talks with any food product chain to locate it in the shopping center because the license he holds is for a multipurpose area of less than 2,500 square meters that, according to Spínola, does not include permission for minor food trade.
On the other hand, he has declined any responsibility for possible traffic jams that may be generated in the accesses to the General Hospital of Lanzarote. This weekend "Argana Centro has been launched and the contribution of vehicles has been minimal", he pointed out. For the president of the Chamber of Commerce, the problem arises from the vehicles that contribute to the road crossing other "areas of Argana where there are warehouses and factories, some of which are illegal and have been consented to, in some way, by the City Council".
Eduardo Spínola hopes to be able to reopen "as soon as possible", if he could "today". He denounces that he has been the victim in recent months of a "virulent campaign of attempted discrediting and defamation without precedent" and that now what he hopes is to be able to reopen because the Christmas campaign "is very important" and must release the merchandise.
