The new Marbella Arena, which will start operating in May 2019, will have an auditorium for concerts and sporting events and an outdoor area of terraces and restaurants.
Marbella recovers the mythical Bullring of Puerto Banus (not used since 2010) but converted into a cultural and entertainment space that will accommodate from concerts to sports activities and presentations and events both private and public institutions. The TeatroGoya Group, with extensive experience in the management of shopping centres and the leisure sector inside and outside Spain, takes the reins of a project in which it invests 30 million euros for the acquisition of this unique building and its use.
The promoters have released the first data of a "long-term" initiative that will begin to operate in just a few months, given that its opening is announced for the month of May 2019, as advanced by Luis Miguel Martín and Rafael Sánchez, of the business group that already has a presence in Marbella through its participation in the TeatroGoya complex in Puerto Banús and Casa Rusia.
Marbella Arena, the name given to the venue, as this newspaper announced last week, will have an auditorium that will occupy the bullring, with 2,971.45 square metres and a capacity for 5,000 people, of which around 1,000 will be seated in the bullring. The space will be completed with some 60 boxes arranged in three lines. The capacity, they explained, is designed in such a way that it can be occupied in fifteen minutes and vacated in six minutes. During the winter months the bullring will be covered on the basis of solutions that are being studied, as the developers have explained. This auditorium will also have another 567.25 square meters for changing rooms and warehouses.
The outdoor area, reserved for terraces, restaurants and shows, will be divided between the 1,024 square meters of leisure area, 457 square meters of shopping area and 1,047 meters of covered square also used for leisure. 25 commercial premises have been planned.
Both the auditorium and the commercial premises will be managed by different companies, most of them, as explained by Luis Miguel Martín, "based in Marbella".
Also from Marbella is the Estudio Huete Arquitectos, which has been entrusted with the recovery work of this square built in 1965 by Luis María de Gana y Hoyos, with a design almost identical to the project he proposed for the Vista Alegre bullring in Bilbao. "It is a project that is complicated to conceive but easy to execute that will allow us to recover an island that has had as a border all the surroundings in which it is located and that we now want to integrate into that environment", explained Fernando Huete.
"The words of Luis Miguel Martín, from Grupo TeatroGoya, when referring to a programme of events that, as it has progressed, will be maintained throughout the year and will comprise around fifty large annual shows.
A green arena
The presentation of the project that took place yesterday with the presence of a good handful of businessmen of Marbella and inside the Plaza de Toros de Banús, allowed to verify the state in which the bullring is, with the bullring completely covered by vegetation after almost a decade without use.
The head of the company in charge of the technical direction of the project, Fernando Huete, said that while the structure of the building is "good", they are studying solutions to act in the bleachers, where more accuses the passage of time.
From the City Council, the councilman of Employment and the district of New Andalusia, Cristobal Garre, who attended the presentation, recalled how the area of Banus was "the origin of tourism development in the city" and asked the promoters of Marbella Arena "to continue with that development and generate employment.
The construction of Marbella Arena, according to the promoters, will generate 300 direct jobs and from its opening, a total of 675 between direct and indirect.
The Puerto Banús Bullring, closed to the hilt until now, ceased to celebrate bullfighting festivities in the year 2000. As of 2005, after the passing of hands on the property, the enclosure changed its use and was transformed into a stage for concerts to which international artists of the stature of Joe Cocker climbed, and space for cultural activities. In 2010 it hosted the last of these performances. A year earlier, in 2009, its image had been turned around the world when it became the venue for the Davis Cup Tennis finals.
The Marbella Arena logo is the work of graphic designer Álvaro Paniagua and represents the laminated roof of the building.
News Credits to DiarioSur : https://www.diariosur.es/marbella-estepona/grupo-teatrogoya-invierte-20181108003052-ntvo.html