The Cabildo de Gran Canaria is allocating €3.2 million for the Mercado de Maspalomas main municipal market place to be revamped into an attractive link between tourists, residents and local produce. The San Bartolomé de Tirajana town hall has been working for a year on the project which will also transform the popular local market place into an energy self-sufficient facility powered by solar panels. It will have 28 commercial and refreshments premises, a 1,000 m2 marquee space, and 10,000-metres of car parking where the weekly Saturdays and Wednesdays markets will return once the works are complete.
Maspalomas Market is one of the most popular places visited by tourists in San Bartolomé de Tirajana and acts as a meeting point for visitors and residents alike. The main building itself, and the surrounding area, is in a sub-standard condition but that will now be changed into a modern market place that will not only promote “Kilometre Zero” local produce but also generate power and energy from the sun.
Good relations and between the Cabildo de Gran Canaria and the new mayor has led to this collaboration, with the new town council elected last year having got down to business as soon as they took power a year ago with project plans already in hand that will be financed using €3.2 million of Cabildo de Gran Canaria island government funding.
The president of the Cabildo, Antonio Morales, and the mayor of the southern tourism heartland municipality, Concepción Narváez, presented the project together with the first deputy mayor, Samuel Henríquez, explaining that the space will become an axis for the two administrations, on the one hand promoting the “Ecoisla del Cabildo” campaign and on the other helping to achieve a quality link between tourism and the local population, since it is also sited between the main tourist areas as well as local residential areas such as San Fernando and El Tablero.
The market consists of as 3,000 square meters, 1,583 of which, at the front, will be completely demolished, adjacent to Avenida Alejandro del Castillo. This will be expanded up to 2,317 square meters and house eight sets of offices and a training room on the upper floor. The ground floor will have 20 premises intended for food, produce and catering, ten of them will connect to the outside and will also have their own terraced spaces. Inside, eight kiosks will be added, also for food, all of which is produced in Gran Canaria.
The nearly 10,000 square meters of car parks, in which the regular weekly markets are held every Wednesdays and Saturday, will also be resurfaced and reconditioned with new street furniture and lighting so that the whole environment is brought into line with this new commercial nerve centre for Maspalomas.
During the presentation, the president of the Cabildo, Antonio Morales also stated his appreciation of the close collaboration between the Cabildo and the Council of San Bartolomé de Tirajana over the last year, when the new corporation started working. Since then it has been possible to reach an agreement to reopen the little known Tony Gallardo Park, two hotel building licenses have been granted after years of blockade, the consistory is working hard to take the Siam Park water park licenses forward, as well as having spearheaded the project to protect the Maspalomas Dunes. Now both institutions have been able to reactivate the Tourist Consortium, endowed by the Cabildo with 10 million euros for works that modernise this municipality, the de facto driving force behind the economy of Gran Canaria.
A “competitive tourist destination needs a municipal market that is a benchmark, we began a year ago and it is the perfect balance between tourism and local neighbourhoods, it will be an example of that balance and the reflection of a modern city,” said the mayor, who celebrated that Maspalomas will at last have its new meeting point offering the produce of this land in 2021.
