The works of the new building, in Santiago de la Ribera, resume with a cost increase of 37.5%
After three public tenders and a 37.5% increase in the cost of the project, construction work on the Center for Tourism Initiatives, now better known as a business center, has resumed. The remodeling of the old La Ribera ambulatory will culminate in February and, after equipping the rooms and offices, it will be able to open its doors in spring. A grant from European funds for the rehabilitation of public buildings, estimated at 420,000 euros, will finance the works and allocate the initial budget that the City Council had for a second phase that includes a hotel school.
The first phase “has had to go out to tender three times,” explains the Councilor for Finance and Commerce, Héctor Verdú. The contest offered the work two years ago for 400,000 euros, the same price that was offered in a second call, which was deserted, until the local government raised the valuation to 550,000 euros. The European subsidy has made it possible to cushion the increase in the cost of the work and prepare the second phase so that “after the summer the works begin,” says the mayor.
The first building will follow the design made by the architect Salvador Griñán, and will include offices for the Local Development Agency with its three municipal technicians. In addition, regional organizations that support entrepreneurs, such as the Development Institute (Info), the Murcia Chamber of Commerce, the Association of Young Entrepreneurs and the Association of Women Entrepreneurs, among others, will have customer service offices.
The units will have classrooms for workshops and conferences, and a space for entrepreneurs
In another part of the center there will be a space for the operation of companies in the ‘seed’ phase and ‘coworking’ rooms in which “entrepreneurs can establish synergies and collaborations”, indicates Verdú. A training area will allow the organization of workshops and conferences of business and innovation interest.
In the hotel school, budgeted at more than 400,000 euros, two floors will be created. On the upper floor, it is planned to enable offices for companies in a more mature phase. The ground floor will be dedicated to the training of kitchen and catering staff.
“We aspire to organize courses that provide professional certificates, in order to create future employment opportunities and solve a chronic problem in the Mar Menor area such as the lack of hotel staff.” This deficit of workers in the sector “has become the problem that currently worries employers the most, almost above the rise in the cost of electricity.”
The Department of Commerce hopes that the operation of the hospitality school will provide professionals to these businesses. “It will be more affordable for residents of the area who want to train in this sector, since the hospitality schools of Murcia and Cartagena are far away.”
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