Malaga hospitality professionals fear work on Pedregalejo promenade will not finish before summer

Hospitality

More than 20 business owners demand a plan to tackle what they describe as an "unsustainable situation", while the city council says that the renovation is "on schedule"

Marina Martínez

Restaurant and bar owners in Malaga's Pedregalejo district fear that, given the state of the promenade work, the renovation won't finish before the summer.

More than 20 business owners held an "urgent" meeting on Monday to address what they describe as an "unsustainable situation".

"I have 17 employees out of work. We've been without electricity for four months. They've torn up my terrace and haven't touched a single tile. They need to double the staff, have a construction plan and focus on the sidewalks," one of them said, directly criticising the city council.

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• Infrastructure

  • Higuera made it clear that they are not "against the construction itself, but against its management".

    "I've only had to close for a few days. Fortunately, we have another ice cream shop in El Palo, which saves us, especially in terms of staffing. But here in Pedregalejo, the drop in customers has been significant. It's down by 50%," Paloma Cremades said. "We just want to be informed so we can plan our suppliers and staffing," she asked.

    Along the same lines, owner of Frida Pahlo Pedro Trillo said: "We're not looking for someone to blame, but for solutions and understanding, because we don't understand why the promenade is in such a state of disarray at this point. The worst part is that it's almost May. What we want is to talk, not to create conflict, simply to have the current status of the construction explained to us."

    "We see that there's a staff shortage and not much progress," Higuera said. "They told us that, if the work wasn't finished by 30 June, they would pause and resume in September, but the last thing they told us is that it will continue until the beginning of August," he complained.

    "Please lay the flooring so we can set up the terraces," Higuera asked. "I'm surviving thanks to my family. Otherwise, I would have had to sell the business."

    He acknowledges that some colleagues of his are in a worse situation, like Herminia Salido of Mafalda, who has been impacted by the construction work from the very beginning. "As soon as the work started, we had to vacate the terrace because they had to dig a trench to install a pump and it's still open and the pump hasn't arrived. It's devastated me," Salido said.

    Despite this, she has tried to continue operating with takeaway sandwiches and hamburgers, but even so, she estimates that during this time she hasn't sold "even 30%" of what she usually sells.

    The city council has told SUR that "the work is on schedule and, as agreed with Mahos before it began, it would be halted if business owners requested that for periods such as Easter or summer".

    Regarding the summer months, head of the Mahos association of hotel and restaurant owners Javier Frutos said that they had requested that the companies responsible for the work recruit more employees.

    The city council's budget for the Pedregalejo promenade renovation is 5.7 million euros.