It has been a lengthy, costly and controversial process but yesterday, the winning bid to manage Palma’s new convention centre and luxury hotel was finally announced.
Palma.—It was not long ago that work had been brought to a grinding halt on the project due to disputes between the various parties involved in the construction of the new complex.
However, yesterday the Palma City Councillor for Tourism, Alvaro Gijon, accompanied by the Balearic Minister for Tourism, Jaime Martinez, announced that, after the two only bids had been carefully scrutinised, the Majorcan Grupo Barcelo had won the contract to manage the complex.
The only other bid had been submitted by the global Majorcan international hotel chain Meliá International Hotels, but that apparently fell just short of the Barcelo bid.
Gijon explained that each bid was marked by the consortium out of 100. Barcelo’s bid won 88.84 points while the Meliá bid fell just short with 85 points.
The complex, on which work first began in 2008, should have opened in 2011 but it ran over schedule and in July, 2012, work was brought to a halt.
The building was plagued with financial and management problems.
The continued problems were confirmed as a lack of developers were found to continue with the project.
Palma City Council made it clear that there were no circumstances under which the project would be abandoned and they began considering awarding separate contracts for the hotel and conference centre.