The government did not disclose the compensation that should be paid if the plan does not proceed.
Spain.- Uncertainty grows around the future of the Hard Rock in Tarragona megaproject, after the Catalan Parliament approved reversing tax benefits for casinos. Now, it has been revealed that the government of Catalonia had hidden from the Parliament a report that reveals the cost of a possible cancellation of the project.
According to the local media El País, the Catalan government presented to the parliamentary groups of the Candidatura de Unidad Popular (CUP) and the Partido Popular (PP) a legal report prepared by the team of the former regional president, Pere Aragonès, but did not include the estimate of the compensation for not proceeding with the Urban Master Plan (PDU).
If realized, the payment of this charge could be between EUR37.5m and EUR50m, in case the authorities approve the PDU and then revoke the authorization to develop the project. In that case, “a claim for consequential damages would be viable”.
Beyond the possible compensation, the report reveals that there would be no place to claim for lost profits, as there is “no quantifiable expectation” at this stage of the process.
The spokesperson councilor Sílvia Paneque denied any concealment by the government, but the CUP accused the government of lying by ensuring that “the project could be stopped without economic consequences” and both the CUP and the PP claim to have received only 37 pages of a document that, in truth, has a total of 97.
However, Paneque pointed out that the current administration, headed by the regional president Salvador Illa, has “passed all the information they required”. Therefore, she considered that the complaint about reports commissioned to another government, now extinct, does not correspond.
It is worth remembering that on Wednesday, January 29, the Catalan Parliament approved the bill to modify the taxation of tourist recreational centers, with the support of PSC, ERC, the Comuns and the CUP, the abstention of Aliança Catalana (AC), and the rejection of Junts, PP, and Vox.
The bill, which will affect the aforementioned Hard Rock project, maintains the current gambling taxes, which for casinos with more business volume is 55 percent, and eliminates the reduction to 10 percent that was approved in 2014, which would come into effect when the gambling and betting activities in the megacomplex operated by Hard Rock began.
The Hard Rock project estimates investments worth EUR2.000m and plans the construction of a complex with 1,000 hotel rooms, a casino, a shopping center, a 6,000 square meter swimming pool, a concert space, among other amenities.
More than a decade has passed since the Generalitat de Catalunya presented with great fanfare the construction of Barcelona World, an entertainment and gaming megacomplex that would be located in the jurisdictions of Salou and Vila-Seca, in the province of Tarragona. The idea of constructing the megacomplex was born in 2012. Precisely the mayors of both localities were the last to refer to the development of the complex which for 12 years has made little to no progress and has divided politics by their positions for and against the project.
The Minister of Economy and Finance, Alícia Romero, defended the megaproject stating that it has “many positive elements” in areas such as meeting tourism, business, and congresses and emphasizing that “it is not just a casino”.
In an interview on Catalunya Ràdio, Romero stated that the decision on whether the Hard Rock continues or not after the tax change is in the hands of the project's investors. “We will see what they decide with the increase in taxation, we will have to work with them depending on the decision they make,” she assured and added that the government defends this project because they believe it has positive elements, such as meeting or business tourism.
On the other hand, the government of Salou expressed its support for the Hard Rock project to establish a megacomplex with a casino in the jurisdictions of Salou and Vila-Seca, in the province of Tarragona. The Plenary of the Salou City Council voted in favor of a motion that expresses its support for the final approval of the Urban Master Plan (PDU) and the development of the Hard Rock megaproject. The proposal, presented by the municipal groups Sumem per Salou-PSC, PP, and Ara Pacte Local, received the favorable vote of these groups, while ERC, VOX, and USAP abstained.
