The reports issued by the Public Health Section of the Canary Islands Government and the health technician of the Arrecife City Council, necessary for the Argana Centro commercial area to open its doors, do not contemplate the existence of an area to market food products. However, the report from the Technical Office of the Arrecife City Council, which gives the green light to the granting of an opening license, does include the retail trade of food products among the activities to be authorized. Next Wednesday, the Arrecife Government Commission will discuss the granting of the license, taking into account the three favorable reports that the City Council has, but which do not contemplate the same commercial activities. The mayor declared to La Voz that Argana Centro has requested a license for a food area of less than 1,000 square meters and a total area that does not exceed 2,500 square meters.
At the beginning of last August, the Public Health Section of the Canary Islands Government sent a letter to the Arrecife City Council regarding the inspection visit it had made to the Argana Centro commercial area, in which they reported that they had nothing to contribute since they had observed that "no food activity will be carried out in said establishment." The Public Health Section explains that, in addition, the owner of the warehouse, the company Tiendas Especializadas de Canarias S.L. of Eduardo Spínola, corroborates that they had eliminated the food activity by modifying the shopping center project.
For its part, a health technician from the Arrecife City Council reported on October 23 that after visiting Argana Centro, he believes that "its start-up can be definitively authorized from a hygienic-sanitary point of view" for the activities of retail trade of household goods, hardware, household equipment and parking, but does not name retail trade of food products.
However, the report issued by the Technical Office of the Arrecife City Council on October 19, which estimates that "yes, its start-up can be definitively authorized", gives its approval to the activities of retail trade of food products, in addition to the rest of the activities of trade of household goods, hardware, household equipment and parking, which do have a positive report from the health inspection.
This same week, the mayor of Arrecife, Enrique Pérez Parrilla, declared to La Voz that the owner of Argana Centro has requested an opening license to house a food product area of less than 1,000 square meters, while the total area will not exceed 2,500 square meters. "For their own good, they have made the food area less than 1000 meters and the commercial area less than 2,500 meters," explained the mayor of Arrecife, referring to the owner of the shopping center, who would have had to request a specific activity license from the Canary Islands Government if it had exceeded those 1,000 meters for food and 2,500 meters of total area, as established by the Commerce Law.
In this way, and since it does not exceed the limit established by the Commerce Law, it is the Arrecife City Council that is responsible for issuing the necessary opening license for Argana Centro. A concession that will be discussed next Wednesday in the Government Commission of the Arrecife City Council, according to the mayor of the capital, who pointed out that "if it effectively complies with everything, the license will be granted."
The rest of the thousands of square meters that the shopping center has, which according to Felapyme reaches 11,000 in total, correspond to a series of commercial premises, which, according to the mayor himself, will have to request their start-up license as they are being rented.
"They have been modifying and circumventing the law to allow, from a legal point of view, those 2,499 square meters that do not require a license from the autonomous government," said the president of Felapyme, Alfredo Villalba, to La Voz, who conveyed the "concern" of small and medium-sized business owners because they believe that the company of the president of the Chamber of Commerce, "intends to open with this area and then gradually increase it" until reaching 11,000 square meters of commercial area.
The Arrecife City Council granted them 10 business days last Wednesday, October 31, to present allegations and documents "that they deem pertinent" before the license was granted to Argana Centro, but at first the City Council did not provide the favorable reports to Felapyme.
Last Wednesday, the board of directors of Felapyme met and sent a request to the Arrecife City Council to paralyze the 10 business days that were granted to them to allege, until the favorable reports to the shopping center were provided to them.
The reports specify that the company has corrected some irregularities that prevented it from obtaining the license. Irregularities such as "that they declared that there were 24 premises instead of 27 in total", according to Enrique Pérez Parrilla, among other issues that the mayor did not know in depth. "I don't know why they have made this a squabble, which has to do with business disputes, if that work had a license from 2003 and has complied with its procedures," concluded Enrique Pérez Parrilla.
For his part, Alfredo Villalba hopes that even if Argana Centro opens with 2,500 square meters instead of 11,000, it is located in "homogeneous zone 9, a land that allows industrial use but prohibits its commercial use" according to the Arrecife PGOU. Felapyme understands that this argument is now supported by the ruling regarding the frustrated Valterra shopping center, which was also located in homogeneous zone 9, a classification that, according to the court, did not make the commercial area possible. "This ruling should be taken into account, which, although it is not yet final, sets a precedent," concluded Alfredo Villalba.
