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It’s only been half a century coming, but the shell of the Lagomar hotel in La Manga, commonly termed a ‘ghost building’, has begun to be taken part this Thursday November 30.

 

Almost since work began to build the hotel in the 1970s, it stalled at the exoskeleton phase and was never fully completed. For 50 years now, the hotel, which occupies a 20,000-square-metre plot of land, has been both a landmark and an eyesore for the people of La Manga, and especially for the fully completed Doblemar hotel next door, which has in the past been forced to lower its prices due to its proximity with the great ugly hulk of the Lagomar.

 

There have been attempts to tear the Lagomar building down in the past, all of which have stalled on technical issues, but now San Javier Town Council has taken the definitive first step to take the hotel apart piece by piece.

 

 

While it would undoubtedly have been more fun and infinitely more satisfying if they’d have blasted it to the ground, it was deemed safer to dismantle it a little bit at a time over the next three months as the building is at risk of collapsing in on itself. San Javier Council will then pass the bill for the demolition work – close to 800,000 euros – to the Lagomar’s owners, commercial company Intramanga Turística.

 

“The blasting would have taken five minutes,” said Cristóbal García, civil engineer and designer of the Lagomar demolition and construction director. “However, we have been very careful to have all the environmental guarantees, including several studies, including CARM (Regional Government) biologists who have detected protected species. In addition, an anti-turbidity barrier has been installed in the Mar Menor to prevent any rubble, dust or debris from falling. It takes much longer, but in the end it’s worth it.”

 

The Mayor of San Javier, José Miguel Luengo, described this day as “very important” for La Manga del Mar Menor “who will no longer have to look the other way every time they enter or leave”.

 

“This infrastructure, twin of the Doblemar, began to be built 50 years ago, and here this abandoned mass of concrete and iron has remained,” he said.

 

He went on to say that, once the building has been completely taken down around the end of February and the rubble been transferred to a controlled landfill site in La Unión, that the area “will enjoy a new opportunity”.

 

It is now foreseen that this area will be able to blossom from the ashes of this demolition.

 

“This area is going to flourish in the way we all want, creating opportunities and making it an emblematic place,” concluded Mayor Luengo.

 

Images: Ayuntamiento de San Javier