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oriolat2

Giga Poster
This is the biggest news in Catalunya since PA was built back in the early 90s.
Spain's Catalonia unveils plans for mega resort project

Spain's debt-ridden Catalonia region unveiled plans Friday for a 4.8-billion-euro ($6.0 billion) "Barcelona World" resort but with financing yet to be found and no deal signed.

Catalonia revealed the project as its regional capital Barcelona seemed set to lose a battle with Madrid to lure US firm Las Vegas Sands to build a jobs-rich mega casino project, dubbed Eurovegas.

"Barcelona World" envisages six large tourist complexes near Port-Aventura south of Barcelona with 20,000 hotel rooms, shopping centres, a theatre, convention centre, casinos, services and offices.

Each complex would represent a country or region: Europe, the United States, China, Brazil, Russia and India, and the project promoters said they hope to lure 10 million visitors a year.

The plan is backed by the Catalonia government, La Caixa bank, and the Brazil-based real estate developer Veremonte, whose main shareholder is Spanish billionaire Enrique Banuelos.

They were working "alongside international investors," the Catalan government said in a statement.
But "nothing has been signed, we just have an agreement between the parties to go ahead with the project," said a finance official at the Catalan regional government.

"We are looking for self-financing on an equity basis, which means attracting investors to each of the six complexes who will also take charge of construction in that sector."

Catalonia said the scheme would create an estimated 20,000 jobs, crucial in a period when Spain is suffering an unemployment rate of nearly 25 percent, the highest in the industrialized world.

"Barcelona World" is being made public as news emerged that Las Vegas Sands was likely to spurn Barcelona for a mega casino project.

The two cities have been in talks for months to lure "Eurovegas", with a decision expected by the end of the month.

This week, Madrid regional government head Esperanza Aguirre said she had a "positive intuition" that the Spanish capital would be selected.

"Yes, that's probable," Artur Mas, the head of the government of the northeastern region of Catalonia agreed in a radio interview.

Catalonia's regional and sustainability minister, Lluis Recoder, said "Barcelona World" was in some ways better than "Eurovegas".

"It is a developed and thought-out project," he said in the Catalan government statement.

Unlike the project pushed by billionaire Sheldon Adelson's Las Vegas Sands, "it is a strategic project that has consensus of the territory," he added.

Since it was to be located in in a developed area with no planning modifications required, "the speed of execution of this project is greater than any other that could be on the table, not only in Catalonia but in the whole of Spain," he said.

Opponents of the "Eurovegas" project fear it will open the doors to a prostitution mafia, and they have denounced a return to the excesses of the Spanish property bubble, which imploded in 2008.

Las Vegas Sands, the world's biggest casino company by market value, operates The Venetian and The Palazzo casinos in Las Vegas and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. It also operates properties in Macao.

Source: Yahoo! UK

To sum things up, Barcelona and Madrid were sort of fighting to get the Eurovegas complex built by Sheldon Adelson. Since it looks that Madrid is getting away with it, the Catalan government has fought back by taking a step announcing this mega project.

It will consist of six areas themed to China, the US, Europe, India, Russia and Brazil, each one featuring a 2,000-room hotel, casinos, shops and restaurants themed accordingly.

What's even more surprising is that this project will sit on the expansion land that PA have. In fact, the aim of this project is to rocket the numbers from the current 4 million to 10 million every year.

The whole thing is expected to be completed by the end of 2016.
 

TheCoasterCruiser

Giga Poster
Re: Barcelona Worl to be built next to PortAventura

This one actually seems pretty secured considering it's the government's idea.

Whether or not I like the idea, I really don't know yet.
 

gavin

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Re: Barcelona World to be built next to PortAventura

financing yet to be found and no deal signed.

How very "Dubai" of them!
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Re: Barcelona World to be built next to PortAventura

Whilst the concept of this is nice, the actual possibility of this happening is pretty slim in my eyes, I don't know a lot of companies at the moment that are willing to just go and give capital up like that, even banks are starting to draw back, the corrupt ****.
 

Treeis

Mega Poster
Re: Barcelona World to be built next to PortAventura

Quick! Go to PA before the queues get biblical!
 

oriolat2

Giga Poster
Re: Barcelona World to be built next to PortAventura

I think that the 10 million figure is a bit far-fetched. Heck, Disneyland Paris has over 14 million visitors every year, and that's A LOT of people and they have two gates.

I can't imagine how PA could handle such a HUGE amount of people without changing operations, adding a ton more of high-capacity rides and opening year round (which I assume they will).

I am positive this will get built because it already has the Government's thumbs up and they have already have funding. What they are missing now is who is going to operate each of these hotels, casinos, shopping centres, etc.
 

Smithy

Strata Poster
Re: Barcelona World to be built next to PortAventura

oriolat2 said:
I am positive this will get built because it already has the Government's thumbs up and they have already have funding. What they are missing now is who is going to operate each of these hotels, casinos, shopping centres, etc.

The article says they've not secured funding though?

It seems to be supported by a lot of people/companies who're massively in debt too, so surely any sensible investor isn't likely to take their advice and invest in this?
 

rollermonkey

Strata Poster
Re: Barcelona World to be built next to PortAventura

Isn't PA rather far from Barcelona IIRC?

Odd naming for the project, IMO.
 

Ben

CF Legend
Re: Barcelona World to be built next to PortAventura

^It's just over an hour away. Not far, but it's not in Barcelona either.

This is totally going to happen. I mean, Spain have money to burn and a lot of bored, unemployed people that need entertaining!
 

Nic

Strata Poster
Re: Barcelona World to be built next to PortAventura

This sounds a bit ridiculous to me. It could maybe work, maybe... but not in Spain. Not at the moment.

I could kinda see it working if they scaled it back to a Universal CityWalk/Downtown Disney type thing. There's enough people who stay in hotels close enough to the park to make it feasible that they'd stay on into the evening. However, these plans are just far too ambitious and on far too big a scale.
 

Scott88

Hyper Poster
Re: Barcelona World to be built next to PortAventura

Port Aventura will probably need at least one more high capacity coaster to deal with the crowds if this does go ahead.

I am not sure if I like the idea tbh.
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Re: Barcelona World to be built next to PortAventura

The thing is, wasn't PA meant to get an entertainment village ages back? As Nic said, I wouldn't be surprised if the grandure just gets put back to that.
 
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