{"id":50815,"date":"2023-01-30T21:50:05","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T19:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goldenkey-realestate.com\/2023\/01\/30\/medio-siglo-del-gran-cambio-de-benalmadena\/"},"modified":"2023-05-01T13:24:12","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T11:24:12","slug":"medio-siglo-del-gran-cambio-de-benalmadena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goldenkey-realestate.com\/en\/2023\/01\/30\/medio-siglo-del-gran-cambio-de-benalmadena\/","title":{"rendered":"Half a century of the great change of Benalm\u00e1dena"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Marina changed the way of seeing and understanding the city that was placed on the map of the Costa del Sol for the first time until today it became one of the most amazing port and residential complexes in the world – 50 years of the concession and the beginning of the works and 40 years of its official inauguration<\/strong><\/h3>\n

50 years<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0have passed\u00a0<\/span>since the administrative concession was granted on November 12, 1972, which allowed the start of the\u00a0<\/span>construction<\/span>\u00a0works of what is now known as\u00a0<\/span>Puerto Deportivo de\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Benalm\u00e1dena<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0.\u00a0<\/span>A project that involved an\u00a0unprecedented urban, economic and tourist transformation<\/strong>\u00a0and that marked a before and after in the municipality.\u00a0\u00abHe changed Benalm\u00e1dena and put it on the maps of the Costa del Sol, where it did not appear before.\u00a0<\/span>Until then, it was seen as an extension of\u00a0Torremolinos\u00a0.\u00a0With the appearance of the port, that happened to history.\u00a0You no longer had to go to Puerto Ban\u00fas to look for a first-rate marina, “explains the journalistJos\u00e9 Manuel Bielsa, author of the book ‘The Project that changed Benalm\u00e1dena’<\/strong>\u00a0, a graphic memory recently published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary.<\/p>\n

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The port was inaugurated on October 9, 1982, ten years after the start of the works,<\/strong>\u00a0a historical period marked by the Spanish Transition, in which Spain experienced a profound change at a political, economic and social level.\u00a0The dictator Francisco Franco died, a change of regime took place, the Spanish Constitution was approved, the socialist Felipe Gonz\u00e1lez arrived at La Moncloa and a failed coup attempt was perpetrated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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From an economic point of view, the country left autarky behind and began to prepare its candidacy to enter the\u00a0Common Market<\/strong>\u00a0, while at a tourist level the coast began to show signs of exhaustion after two decades of success.\u00a0It was time to innovate\u00a0, evolve and create new attractions<\/strong>\u00a0and the Puerto Deportivo de Benalm\u00e1dena arrived just at that moment.<\/p>\n

The road has not been easy for that group of\u00a0dreamers<\/strong>\u00a0headed by the then\u00a0mayor of Benalm\u00e1dena, Enrique Bol\u00edn;\u00a0the port’s first investor, Max Toledano;\u00a0the architect Eduardo Oria and the engineer Jaime Dionis,<\/strong>\u00a0among others, who promoted this project and had to overcome endless regulatory, legal, political and financial impediments.\u00a0“When you talk to the people who made it possible, some of whom are no longer there, you have the feeling that the port was an obstacle course at all levels,” explains Bielsa.<\/span><\/p>\n

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This was the first phase of the project, as it took more than 20 years for all the apartments and shops to be completed.\u00a0In the mid-1980s and early 1990s, real movement began to be generated in the port with the\u00a0development of the dry dock and nautical activity<\/strong>\u00a0, mainly as a result of the creation of the Club N\u00e1utico.<\/p>\n

Since then and almost by inertia, the Marina has become\u00a0one of the most important port and residential complexes in southern Europe,<\/strong>\u00a0with model facilities and unique architecture.\u00a0In fact, it was quite a success in terms of image.\u00a0“The Costa del Sol, from the eighties to here, probably has not known a marketing campaign like the one carried out with the port, which was even on the cover of the Parisian edition of Vogue magazine,” Bielsa points out.\u00a0On the other hand, the port has been awarded twice as\u00a0the Best Marina in the World and has held the European Blue Flag since 2015<\/strong>\u00a0for the quality of its services and its waters.<\/p>\n

If there is something that characterizes it, apart from the magnitude, ambition and aspirations with which it was conceived, it is the style of its architecture, its open character, its familiar tone and its great commercial and hospitality offer, in addition to its strong vocation residential.\u00a0It also has one of the\u00a0largest and most prestigious water sports calendars on the entire Costa del Sol.<\/strong>\u00a0In this sense, the Discovery Regatta was the first major milestone in its nautical activity and put the port in the international press in 1984.<\/p>\n

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Stories and personalities<\/h2>\n

Throughout its history, there are many\u00a0stories<\/strong>\u00a0that have emerged around the Marina, as well as the different renowned personalities that have passed through its facilities.\u00a0It started out as Puerto Pr\u00edncipe,\u00a0the godmother of the works was the artist Roc\u00edo Jurado;\u00a0Gunilla von Bismarck had the second charter that made excursions from Puerto Marina to Puerto Ban\u00fas;\u00a0and one of its icons was the Willow, a US Navy ship<\/strong>\u00a0that ended up anchored in the port, where it was used as a nightclub and sank in 2019. Currently, the City Council is waiting for the owner to remove it , once the responsibilities are legally distributed.\u00a0Franco’s first yacht, before the Azor, was restored<\/strong>\u00a0at its facilities .and docked ships such as the\u00a0Prince Albert of Monaco oceanographic ship and a replica of the Nao Victoria with which Elcano<\/strong>\u00a0circumnavigated the globe in the greatest maritime feat in history.\u00a0On the social side, the port has hosted beauty contests that have kept Benalm\u00e1dena at the center of the social chronicle.<\/p>\n

A direct witness to the evolution of the port has been Costa Sol Cruises, a nautical\u00a0tourism\u00a0company that has been operating there since its inauguration, and is dedicated to passenger navigation and whale watching in the Alboran Sea, whose vessels have Blue flag.\u00a0“We have experienced how the marina has been growing all these years in which not only\u00a0private and commercial vessels have increased<\/strong>\u00a0, as well as berths, but also the leisure, gastronomy and commerce offer”, declares its current manager,\u00a0Verania Medina<\/strong>.\u00a0And it is that apart from being invited to work there by Enrique Bol\u00edn, this family was attracted by the beauty of this project.\u00a0“At the time it was very striking thanks to that special architecture that cannot be seen in other ports, with that Andalusian, Arab, Indian, etc. style,” he explains.\u00a0In addition, they also took into account the length of the peak season.<\/p>\n

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The port occupies 160,000 square meters and has about 1,100 berths.\u00a0<\/span>Currently,\u00a0it is immersed in the renewal of the concession for another 25 years.\u00a0<\/strong>To this end, it has drawn up a modernization draft based on around 5 million euros, which includes the creation of new pontoons to expand its capacity, the final development of the Yacht Club and interventions in the port’s protection dock.\u00a0It was a true odyssey to get to what it is today, the emblem that Benalm\u00e1dena needed and that changed the way of seeing and understanding the city.\u00a0\u00abToday Benalm\u00e1dena cannot be conceived without its Marina.\u00a0It is one more element of the city that is part of its\u00a0skyline<\/strong>\u00a0like Tivoli, the Stupa, the butterfly farm or the cable car\u201d, highlights the mayor,Victor Navas.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Consistory wants to bring the port closer to the population<\/h2>\n

In the last decade, the municipal government has tried to bring the port closer to the citizens of Benalm\u00e1dena.\u00a0Among the different initiatives carried out, the creation of the Municipal Sailing School or the expansion of the educational offer, with the implementation of related training modules, stand out.\u00a0\u00abIn principle, the Puerto Deportivo generated a lot of wealth and attracted companies, opportunities and investments, but it was still in a certain way an elitist element because not everyone could afford a boat docked in the port, practice water sports or simply have a housing in the environment.\u00a0We do not want the nautical activity to live with its back to Benalm\u00e1dena, “says the councilor.\u00a0Secondly,\u00a0The Consistory has called a contest for ideas on how the Marina should be in order to safeguard its traditional style, homogenize its image, aesthetics and architecture that has inevitably changed with each municipal government.\u00a0“The winner’s style sheet will reign in the development of the port for the next few years,” explains the mayor, V\u00edctor Navas.\u00a0\u00abThe Puerto Deportivo is an idyllic place to spend the days and spectacular for anyone who likes sailing.\u00a0It is a focus of business 365 days a year.\u00a0It generates more activity in summer, but it works every day.\u00a0In fact, it is in winter when the boats are taken to the slipway for maintenance \u00bb, he explains.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Marina changed the way of seeing and understanding the city that was placed on the map of the Costa del Sol for the first time until today it became one of the most amazing port and residential complexes in the world – 50 years of the concession and the beginning of the works and […]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldenkey-realestate.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50815"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldenkey-realestate.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldenkey-realestate.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldenkey-realestate.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldenkey-realestate.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50815"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/goldenkey-realestate.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52522,"href":"https:\/\/goldenkey-realestate.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50815\/revisions\/52522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldenkey-realestate.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldenkey-realestate.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldenkey-realestate.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldenkey-realestate.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}