Once one of Mallorca's top nightspots, the Casino de Calvia in Sol de Mallorca has been closed since 2011. This venue, where Muhammad Ali and Jimmy Ellis staged an exhibition (to call it a fight would be an exaggeration), has suffered from abandonment ever since. There is graffiti and rubbish. An illegal rave in 2022 didn't help.
Calvia Town Hall is now finalising an agreement for the casino's rehabilitation. The deputy mayor for urban planning, Jaime Bujosa, says this revives provision for a 204-bed hotel in a forested area of great environmental value under the 2000 urban plan.
He explains that this doesn't entail a rezoning, as there was already a land use for tourism, commercial or healthcare purposes. "It will simply be a redevelopment with the aim of preventing the destruction of this area." The plan includes a green area that will be for public use.
Bujosa adds that the previous administration at the town hall had started negotiations with the owners, Cala Xada Beach Hotel GmbH, and that these were resumed "the moment we took over".
"It is an obsolete building, completely abandoned, and a completely degraded space. It is an area full of filth, and we have had complaints from neighbours. This will mean a revitalization of the area. In the past, the casino brought people and wealth. Now it is abandoned."