The initial Mercat Nou renovation project that started in 2013, took shape in 2016, had a preliminary project ready in 2018 and should have started construction in 2019, has remained at a standstill since then. The renovation of the Mercat Nou de Vila is one of those ‘cursed’ projects that get stuck in bureaucratic and administrative dead ends that no one can turn around.
In the case of the future redesign of the Mercat Nou – which involves the demolition of the current building and the construction of another that includes a traditional market and a leisure center with a supermarket – its fate has been linked to that of the stoppage of Vila’s General Urban Development Plan (PGOU). The delays in the reform of the PGOU have also meant the dry stop of the project of the new Mercat Nou.
The Ibiza City Council confirms that the Mercat Nou is still at a standstill while waiting for the approval of a new PGOU, an essential condition for the works to be carried out. This is due, according to the Consistory, to the fact that the new project involves “changes to the current structure of the market”.
As there is still no date for this approval and setting deadlines that are difficult to meet is nothing more than a toast to the sun – a new approval is being processed by the City Council, which will then have to pass through the hands of the Consell and the Balearic Environment Commission – the Consistory states that, meanwhile, they have not remained idle and that the Department of Commerce and Markets has been working on improvements to the current building.
Behind the scenes of the new Mercat Nou
“We have done work to adapt storage spaces [in the Mercat Nou building] that were in disuse or did not have the necessary technical criteria, we have updated and implemented the contracts of the new stalls and we have taken care of the refurbishment of its interior,” says a spokeswoman for the City Council, “the result of this work we have achieved is that the market has practically 100% occupancy, when in 2018 up to 40% of the stalls were empty.”
They also assure that, in parallel, they are working “on the remodeling project and the location of the provisional market”. Recall that, according to the 2018 draft, the demolition works of the current Mercat Nou and the construction of the new one would last 36 months, and that during that time a temporary market would be set up less than 300 meters from where the current one is located.
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