Congress centre teeters on financial edge

PALMA
PALMA'S Mayor, Aina Calvo, said yesterday that she would continue to search for a solution to the lack of financing dogging the unfinished Congress Centre building at the eastern end of the Paseo Maritimo. “We have always been faced with the threat of the works having to grind to a halt,” said Calvo, adding that finding financing had become an up-hill battle after the decision by management company, the Barceló group to abandon the project.

Calvo claimed that “there is no question” of shelving the project, adding that she was confident that the Congress Centre would open on schedule at the end of 2011. This would mean that the first conferences could be held at the start of the following year, said Calvo. “This is how things stand at the moment,” she said.

The Mayor said that there was nothing new to report on the project since August when construction company Acciona had made more than 100 workers redundant, leaving a further 100 still working at the site. Calvo said that the problems associated with the Congress Centre project had been “inherited” from the previous Balearic government when the Partido Popular had controlled the region and the City Council.

The Mayor severely criticised ex Balearic President Jaume Matas and ex Planning Counsellor Javier Rodrigo de Santos for randomly changing the location of the Congress Palace paying little heed to the due process of town planning law. The present City council, she alleged, is now having to handle the consequences of what Calvo described as their “having ridden rough-shod” over legislation.

Calvo said that she would strive to see the project finished because she and her ruling Socialist team were aware what a boost the centre will be to business tourism and the Balearic economy in general. Both the City Council and the Balearic government have to find 30 million euros to finance further work at the centre and the joint venture construction company another 131 million euros.