El Fuerte group takes over running Marbella's iconic holiday and leisure complex

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The Marbella-based business group beat its rival bidder, the Barceló hotel chain, today in Seville with its final bid to pay an annual fee of five million euros for the lease agreement

José Carlos García

Marbella

Thursday, 22 January 2026, 10:36

More than two years after the Residencia de Tiempo Libre de Marbella officially closed its doors, the countdown to its reopening has begun. Moreover, it will reopen with a project that's wholly 'made in Marbella'. The Fuerte business group has won the public tender, launched by the regional ministry for the economy, to operate the facilities as a hotel complex. The closing bids were received and decided in the auditorium at the headquarters of the regional ministry led by Carolina España, the Torretriana building in Seville.

The winning business group participated in the bidding process via Ritusa SA, a subsidiary company based at the five-star El Fuerte hotel in Marbella and whose sole administrator is the chair of Fuertegroup, the holding company that owns, among others, the hotels that come under the brand names of El Fuerte and Amare.

The group won the tender with an offer to pay an annual fee of 5.02 million euros, which is 25 percent above the minimum price set in the tendering process (four million euros). This amount was more than enough for the Marbella-based company to prevail over the only remaining competitor, as SUR reported following the exclusion of Sierra Blanca States Epic SL by the procurement committee, namely, the Barceló hotel chain, which only raised its offer to 4.1 million euros.

The company must deposit a guarantee of nine million euros and make a minimum investment of 50 million euros over a 15-year period and must open by 2029.

The highest bid in the tendering process resulted in the provisional award of this contract to manage hotel operations in this, the third and last Ciudad Sindical de Vacaciones (an affordable holiday complex for public company employees) opened in Spain, inaugurated in 1962, for the next 75 years, with the possibility of extending the lease to 99 years. Now, Ritusa must deposit nine million euros as a final guarantee and formalise the contract with the regional ministry of finance. From then on, a three-year countdown will begin for the leisure complex to reopen its doors some time in 2029.

Required investment and contractual clauses

Winning the contract means that the Marbella-based company must invest at least 50 million euros in the complex. Such investment doesn't have to be made fully before reopening, as the tender spec allows a 15-year period for this purpose. However, the business group faces not only the challenge of getting the complex up and running, but also the need for it to expand.

Marbella town hall, which signed an agreement with the regional ministry, not only changed the land use designation of the plot to hotel use, but also increased the buildable area by 30,000 square metres on top of the existing total built area (23,395 square metres on a plot of almost 197,502 square metres). This change of use is considered essential to be able to recoup the substantial investment and cover the lease payments, which will also increase annually as per price fluctuations in the hotel price index (IPH) published by the INE (Spain's national statistics institute).

The award of this contract includes an "anti-speculation" clause, stipulating that neither the surface rights nor control of the winning company can be transferred until the investment requirement has been met.

The award includes an "anti-speculation" clause, stipulating that neither the surface rights nor control of the winning company can be transferred until the investment requirement (at least 50 million euros invested in the property over the first 15 years) has been met as a guarantee of ensuring project success. Any subsequent investment will require authorisation from the Junta de Andalucía.

From costing money to making money

Regional minister for the economy, Carolina España, highlighted this tender as an example of the Junta's new management approach to boosting the value and development of unused or underutilised public assets, as the complex "will generate employment and wealth for Marbella and Malaga after years of losses amounting to millions of euros for all Andalusians and the people of Malaga".

"It made no sense to keep the plot and the building of the former holiday residence unused, facing the cost of its upkeep every year", said the regional minister, convinced that this new direction will allow for a new purpose, generate employment for the area and bring new wealth to Marbella, Malaga and Andalucía.

She noted that there is already a precedent of the transformation of a former holiday and leisure complex, the one in Cadiz, which was "successfully" converted into a shopping complex and 4-star hotel by the Q-Hotels company, employing around 500 people.