Marbella the jet set capital of Europe and to prove it have a read below and see who else believes it!

Great news yet again for the Costa Del Sol especial the Marbella area. As property prices continue to rise this amazing news hits the press:

W hotel chain to open luxury resort on the beach in Marbella.

The company, which is part of the Starwood group, made the official announcement about the new project in Hong Kong on Thursday

A leading luxury hotel chain is to open an establishment in Marbella. On Thursday, the W chain signed an agreement with the Platinum Estates investment group, which is developing a project in the area of the sand dunes at Real de Zaragoza, to manage the hotel, which is expected to open in 2021.

There had been rumours that the investment group, based in Singapore, and the hotel chain, one of the most important in the world’s luxury sector, were planning to join forces on an important project, but due to a confidentiality clause, neither party to the agreement wanted to give any details until the deal was signed and the official announcement was made in Hong Kong.

The mayor of Marbella, José Bernal Gutiérrez, was at the former British colony for the presentation of this major investment by one of the world’s most exclusive tourism firms.

The hotel chain is part of the Starwood-Marriott conglomerate, the two giants of the American hotel industry who merged in September last year. In total W, which is Starwood’s luxury brand, has more than 60 hotels on the five continents.

At present the W chain has just one hotel in Spain, the famous ‘candle hotel’ in Barcelona port, and according to its website it will be opening another of the same group in Madrid in June 2019. The new luxury hotel in Marbella will therefore be the chain’s third in this country.

W originally planned to announce the plans for this new hotel during the World Travel Market last November, but decided to wait because some delays in planning permission needed to be resolved.

Although the hotel will not be in operation until 2021 its beach club will almost undoubtedly open much earlier. The company needs to start its marketing at least two years beforehand, so it has asked Marbella town hall for a guarantee regarding the timescale for granting the works licence, so the construction can begin according to schedule.

In recent weeks there has been significant progress in the town planning processes which were still pending at that time, and the developers believe the works licence could be issued by May of next year. This would mean that the first phase of the project could be inaugurated in 2019.

Announcement
Work on the architectural design for this luxury project has already begun. The group paid approximately 50 million euros for the site and the 600-bed hotel and resort is expected to cost a further 300 million.

The resort will cover a surface area of 151,000 square metres on a frontline site on the Real de Zaragoza beach. According to the plans, the buildings will occupy about 35 per cent of this land, and will be no more than three storeys high. The dunes will be protected to a depth of 150 metres along the 400 metres of coast which is included in the land acquired for the hotel.

A statement issued by Marbella council this week said this investment is of major importance for the town, and is part of the authority’s efforts to make Marbella a preferential destination in the tourism sector “to attract investment which improves the well-being of our citizens and creates wealth and employment.”

AND YET MORE EXCITING NEWS FOLLOWED IN THIS WEEKS PRESS:

Leading American company to invest 200 million in real estate projects on the Costa
A Colorado-based company that focuses its interests on acquiring residential assets in the hands of the banks, has set its sights on Marbella for the birthplace of its European expansion.

The Costa del Sol continues to attract big investors and real estate companies that consider the region for their expansion plans. It is not, however, a game played exclusively between the euro and the pound; American dollars have started to make their impact too.
Real Capital Solutions (RCS) is one of the leading American private capital investment companies specialising in property and the re-capitalisation of investment portfolios of developments that are ‘in difficulty’.
Based in Colorado, this extremely successful business is now moving in on Marbella as it begins its expansion into Europe.
The plans for the company, now on Malaga soil, are to invest an estimated 200 million euros into property development in the area within the next four years. The firm has already paid out 15 million euros in the purchase of two housing developments that were in the hands of Spanish banks. The new division of the company, RCS Spain, has acquired Cosmo Beach (between San Pedro and Estepona) and Valley Heights (on the outskirts of Benahavís). This area is better known to investors as the ‘Golden Triangle” (Marbella - Estepona - Benahavís).
Taylor Cox, Partner at RCS, reveals how 14.95 million euros will be invested into both projects (consisting of around 100 properties), which includes the maintenance costs and the down payments.

AND THE NEWS CONTINUES TO GET EVEN BETTER AS ISRAELI AIRLINE EL AL JOINS THE LONG LIST OF FLIGHTS INTO MALAGA ...

Another record year expected for Malaga airport and tourism on the Costa del Sol

The 52 airlines have made 15.5 million seats available from this Sunday to October, 13 per cent more than last year, and are flying to 126 destinations

Flight schedules are always a good way of measuring tourism prospects for the Costa del Sol, and 2017 looks like being another record year as the airlines which operate to and from Malaga have put 15.5 million seats on sale for flights from this weekend until the end of October. This is two million more than last year.

Salvador Moreno, the director of Malaga Airport, says the forecasts are excellent. He also points out that the number of seats available last year were already 15 per cent more than in 2015.

A total of 52 airlines operate to and from Malaga, and by the end of last year 16.6 million passengers had used the airport. In 2015 there were 13.7 million, which gives an indication of the growth in activity. This summer there will be 89,500 flights, 11.5 per cent more than last year, linking the province with 126 destinations worldwide. This year four more destinations have been added, including Tel Aviv, and in total the companies are operating 242 routes.