Dubai-style island off coast of Barcelona provokes dismay
Plans for a Dubai-style man-made island created off the coast of Barcelona, featuring Europe's tallest hotel have provoked dismay in the Catalan city.
By Fiona Govan, Madrid 4:00PM BST 20 May 2013
The artificial island would be reached by a walkway from the mainland where a 984ft Space Hotel equipped with a vertical wind tunnel and the world's first zero-gravity spa will provide an "other worldly experience for guests wishing to travel to distant galaxies".
A multinational consortium led by US-based Mobilona unveiled its ambitious project last week when it lodged a request for planning permission with Barcelona City Hall.
With an initial investment of 1.5 billion euros, the hotel complex will also include a 24 hour shopping mall, a marina capable of mooring yachts up to 656 feet in length, and private apartments, some of which will be available on a "timeshare" system of 20,000 euros for an annual one-week occupancy right.
Rooms at the 2,000 suite hotel will range from 300 euros to 1,500 euros per night while the six-storey private penthouse mansion with infinity pool, optional helipad and mooring for a superyacht comes with a 70 million euro price tag.
The plans however have already been dismissed by Barcelona's mayor as "not in keeping" with his vision for Barcelona.
"We have no need or desire to take on projects of this nature," Xavier Trias, the mayor from Catalonia's centre-right nationalist CiU party, said in an interview with the Catalan news channel 3/24, while admitting the City Hall will give the proposal due consideration.
"We are a city of culture, knowledge, of creativity, and of innovation, and our project (for the city) will follow a different path." "We have no intention of turning Barcelona into a spectacle," he added.
A spokesman at the planning department of Barcelona City Hall commented: "This seems more suitable for somewhere like Dubai. Any plan to advance Barcelona must be in keeping with the present model of the city."
Mobilona have also unveiled plans for similar "Space Hotels" in Los Angeles and Hong Kong.
