The Castillo Coloradas hotel, still under construction, is located on a privileged line of Las Coloradas beach, between the fishing village of Playa Blanca and the virgin beaches of Papagayo, just on the edge of the Ajaches Natural Monument.
Its official opening was scheduled for Tuesday of next week, specifically October 2nd, but suddenly and approximately a month ago, the works have been sealed, supposedly by the construction company itself since sources from the Cabildo have flatly denied such an extreme, without a firm date for its final opening at the moment.
This was stated this Monday by the person who, until the stoppage of the works, aspired to occupy the position of director of the establishment, Guillermo Conde.
"In principle, the issue is pending in the courts, but we do not know when or in what sense a ruling could be issued in this regard," he explained.
According to Conde, the first of the two parts into which the structure of this accommodation establishment is divided was going to be inaugurated on October 2, that is, on Tuesday of next week. "It would take a month and a half more or less for the construction company to finish the second part of the hotel," he added.
With a category of five stars, a total of 620 beds and about 8,600 square meters of plot of which 5,000 are buildable, it should be remembered that the Castillo Coloradas hotel is one of the establishments in Playa Blanca against which the Cabildo has maintained a judicial dispute for a couple of years after challenging the construction license granted in its day by the Yaiza City Council for allegedly failing to comply with the second revision of the Island Territorial Planning Plan (PIOT) in addition to some precepts of the General Law of Coasts.
This was also corroborated by the representative of the awarding company for the management of the Hotel Castillo Coloradas, Guillermo Conde, who identified this case with that of the [Papagayo Arena->http://www.lavozdelanzarote.com/article.php3?id_article=1381&var_recherche=Papagayo+arena], establishment to which the Cabildo denied the pertinent opening and tourist operation licenses a month ago.
"The problem lies in the fact that the hotel is on the same property as the Papagayo Arena, so it violates a series of rules that the Cabildo must ensure," he argued.
At the end of the 90s, and when the powers to grant the concession of tourist licenses were still in the hands of the Government of the Canary Islands, the Regional Ministry of Tourism granted the establishment the opening license.
"Once the councils acquired such powers in 2002 and a series of rules were stipulated, such as that construction could not be carried out at a certain distance from the coast, the property on which the hotel is located already failed to comply with them, although the licenses had already been granted," said Conde.
For the moment, the works are paralyzed and the promoters remain waiting for a resolution from the courts. "At the moment everything is stopped, those of us who were going to work have had to return to our places of origin and we are waiting for them to tell us something," he added.
"Until 2002 construction continued and nobody said anything, until this summer the works were paralyzed." In Conde's opinion, "it is incomprehensible that they grant the licenses and that six years later we are still waiting for the courts. The hotel does not invade the coast like the Papagayo Arena, but is in a place where anyone could build a hotel," he indicated.
On the other hand, Conde flatly denies that the initial project of the Castillo de las Coloradas does not correspond to the construction in practice, variations that have cost the Papagayo Arena the refusal of the opening and tourist operation licenses.
In any case, sources from the Ministry of Territorial Policy flatly denied this Monday that the Cabildo has issued a resolution against said hotel, as well as any type of closure or sealing. Therefore, they assumed that the stoppage of the works would have perhaps started from a possible voluntary and preventive measure by the managers of the establishment.
Waiting for the lawsuits
Among the hotels affected by the lawsuits filed by the Cabildo, from whose representatives several businessmen from the south have requested a kind of tourist amnesty, are, in addition to the Castillo de las Coloradas hotel, the Gran Meliá Volcán Lanzarote, the Hotel Natura Palace, the Hotel Iberostar Papagayo or the H10 Rubicón Palace, as well as complexes such as the Iberostar La Bocayna, Pueblo Marinero and Apartamentos Iberostar Papagayo Park, as well as others that are already in an advanced state of construction, such as the Las Arenas hotel.
To the 9 hotels and 7 tourist complexes located in Playa Blanca, we should add the rest of the lawsuits filed against the Teguise City Council.
