Veremonte affirms it “has everything ready” to start construction of $6 billion BCN World mega-resort

Barcelona (ACN).– The Catalan Government launched the tender for granting licenses to build six mega-casino hotels in the Costa Daurada, next to PortAventura amusement park. These 6 Las Vegas-style recreational centres are the main part of BCN World, a $6 billion mega-resort that will be the largest holiday centre in Europe. The main promoter of the project, Veremonte, announced on Friday they will be presenting an offer for each of the six hotel casino licenses in partnership with international investors, such as Chinese gambling giant Melco and US multinational Hard Rock. Veremonte also added they have “everything ready” to launch construction.  All candidates must make a minimum initial investment of €300 million, and have until 25 July at 10am to submit their bids. The tender will have 2 eliminatory phases. Applicants will also have to certificate their financial and technical capacities to build and operate such large-scale casinos. In addition, they will have to submit a business plan to prevent money laundering.

The BCN World resort, which will consist of a strip of six mega-casino hotels as well as amusement parks, shopping malls, conference centres, theatres, research institutes, golf courses and a beach club (among other facilities), will be located between the towns of Salou and Vila-seca, on the Costa Darauda. The project is expected to generate 17,000 jobs in the construction phase, and subsequently 5,000 jobs per mega-hotel. It will create the largest  holiday resort in Europe, after an investment of $6 billion.

International investors such as the Chinese company Melco, Spanish luxury hotel brand Melià, UK luxury shopping mall firm Value Retail and Italian investment group Investindustrial have already signalled their participation in the project. Veremonte, the company spearheading BCN World, have now announced their intention to present a bid for all six licences in partnership with other companies. So far they can present an offer for 2 licenses: with Melco Crown and Hard Rock. The tender's deadline ends on the 25^th July at 10 am, so it is likely that Veremonte will be disclosing further investors in the coming weeks. The CEO of BCN World's promoting company, Xavier Adserà, insisted they have  “everything ready” to start construction as soon as they are granted the licenses and have the town planning green light.

The process for applying for licences is divided into two phases, both knock-out stages.  The first phase will consist of screening applicants and the second will evaluate proposals and award licenses. The objective of the first stage is to ensure the candidates are financially solvent and able to manage the project. In the second stage, in addition to their proposals, each candidate must commit to an initial investment of at least 300 million euros for each permit requested. This is the minimum investment required for the construction of each casino hotel, shopping mall and other recreational facilities.  

The definitive detailed town planning map of the area will be approved in the first half of 2015. However, provisional construction licenses could be issued once the licenses to manage the 6 mega-hotel casinos are granted. The provisional construction license could enable the companies to start preparing the plots of land for construction work during 2014. This would not be incompatible with waiting for the final and detailed urban plan, since its main guidelines were already approved last May. Taking all this into account, Veremonte explained that its ability to start work in Autumn 2014 is in the hands of the Catalan Ministry of Planning and Sustainability, which is the body granting the provisional construction licenses. The companies behind BCN World have already hired several architects and engineering teams, who have already been working on the resort’s design for months.