The government will bring the tender process for ‘Benidorm Open Arena’ to a plenary session next week

The governing team will bring a proposal to the plenary session next week to initiate the bidding process for the ‘Benidorm Open Arena’ project and construction, which will rehabilitate the bullring as a cultural, youth, and inclusion space. The proposal, signed by the councillors for Urban Planning and Procurement departments, Lourdes Caselles and Aida García Mayor, will be reviewed this Wednesday by the Internal Affairs Committee (CIRI), after the political groups were informed early in the morning at a Spokespersons' Meeting convened by the mayor, Toni Pérez.

The mayor himself recalled that for the development of the ‘Benidorm Open Arena’, the City Council participated in the call for proposals for Integrated Action Plans for Local Entities (EDIL Plans), obtaining a subsidy of 6.4 million euros from ERDF funds. The remaining amount, up to the 15 million euros that the project is valued at, “will be covered with municipal resources.”

Toni Pérez explained that “we are talking about an ambitious project that will provide Benidorm with new spaces for culture, knowledge, entertainment, and community life, while also improving connectivity between two neighbourhoods with significant population centres: Els Tolls and Foietes-Colonia Madrid.”

Specifically, ‘Benidorm Open Arena’ includes three components. The main one is ‘Arena Live,’ the renovation of the bullring and its conversion into a large, multifunctional space for cultural, social, and sporting activities. In addition to this, there is ‘Arena Joven’ (Youth Arena), an intervention that proposes the creation of a youth centre, conceived as an accessible, multicultural, integrative, inclusive, and dynamic space for training, leisure, and the active participation of young people. The third intervention, ‘Arena Encuentro’ (Meeting Arena), aims to regenerate the urban environment to improve connectivity between Els Tolls-Salt de l’Aigua neighbourhood and the city centre, as well as the northern part of Foietes neighbourhood, via l’Aigüera.”

The mayor stated that “the drafting of the project and its execution have been put out to tender jointly, given the technical complexity of the intervention, stemming from the current state of the bullring structure.” This joint contracting method, chosen “based on technical criteria, efficiency, and ensuring the proper execution of the work,” is provided for in Article 234.1 of the Public Sector Contracts Law.

In this regard, and as already announced two weeks ago, The Councilor for Urban Planning stated that the project presents a high degree of technical uncertainty due to its structural rehabilitation nature. In projects of this scale, many of the issues—such as corrosion, internal cracks, or loss of structural integrity—can only be accurately determined during construction. Therefore, as the Councillor pointed out previously, the construction company must participate from the design phase, allowing for the adaptation of solutions to the realities observed on-site, thus minimising the City Council's financial risks.

In parallel with the administrative procedures to initiate the bidding process, and in compliance with European requirements for projects subsidised by the EDIL (Local Development Agency), the 'Benidorm Open Arena' Fraud Risk Self-Assessment Committee was established on March 16th.

Aside from 'Benidorm Open Arena', the extraordinary plenary session will include a second item: initiating the contracting procedure for the regulated on-street parking service. The contract, which includes the blue zone parking system, also covers towing services and outlines the implementation of green and orange parking zones.

Following the extraordinary plenary session scheduled for April 13, the intention is to approve the tender specifications for both contracts at the regular session in April.