Benidorm approves the project for the Youth Hostel and interpretation center in Séquia Mare park

Wednesday, March 23, 2022.

The Governing Board of Benidorm City Council has approved the execution project for the youth hostel and the Interpretation Center in Sequia Mare Park, one of the most emblematic buildings of the DUSI strategy. "With this great work, we not only offer a new space for the leisure of young people in Benidorm, but we also claim the ethnographic and cultural heritage of our city," declared the mayor Toni Pérez. “It will be an iconic building, perfectly integrated into the landscape, which will enhance the historical setting of Séquia Mare.”

The building, with a contemporary and innovative design, will ensure maximum integration with the natural environment and its full energy efficiency. This construction includes an interpretation centre of the customs of the region, a youth hostel with a camping area and a multi-adventure space, which respects the current bicycle and pedestrian paths.

According to the mayor Toni Pérez, the installation "is a tribute to the Séquia Mare, an avant-garde building that expands the cultural offer while claiming the roots of Benidorm." He adds that "like all the works that we propose in the DUSI strategy, this shelter will be completely sustainable." Therefore the future hostel has been carefully designed to meet the highest standards of energy efficiency, as well as the reduction of light and noise pollution. For the design of the building, an archaeology team specialized in hydraulic heritage and sociologists have participated since the project's inception to ensure an integrating construction that unites the past and the future of Benidorm.

The future Youth Hostel has been designed to make the most of the green lung that is the Séquia Mare park. The accommodation and the interpretation centre will be on the first floor, with views of the mountain, while the leisure areas, which include a dining room, a toy library and a cafeteria on the ground floor next to the camping area.  These public spaces can be opened to the outside to take advantage of the good weather typical of Benidorm.

The youth hostel project has already the approval of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation. The works, once the bidding and award processes are completed, will last 10 months. The investment amounts to 2,177,500 euros, of which the European Union contributes 720,000 euros through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The construction, of great impact in Benidorm, is included in the fifth line of action of the DUSI strategy, which seeks the "rehabilitation and enhancement of public assets, opening them to tourism and citizenship."

ABOUT THE EDUSI in BENIDORM:

The Pluriregional Operational Program of Spain 2014-2020, and the Operational Program for Sustainable Growth (POCS) promote the DUSI strategy, for Sustainable and Integrated Urban Development, of which Benidorm, as established in the Resolution of May 4, 2018, published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) of the Order of the Third Call HFP/888/2017, has managed to opt for and obtain financing from the FEDER aid of 10 Million Euros, through its EDUSI BENIDORM strategy.

The EDUSI BENIDORM is made up of a series of thematic, specific, strategic and operational objectives, encompassed through 13 Lines of Action, whose social, environmental, economic and urban impact on the city aims to transform a delimited urban area of the city into the to intervene and regenerate comprehensively, for the sake of producing an impact and global improvement in the city.