Marbella Club Acquires Juan Antonio Roca's Helipad

The award is not yet official, but unless there is a legal impediment, Lexel Spain 2020 SLU, a company based at the iconic Marbella Club Hotel and chaired by the same person who leads the company managing the emblematic establishment on the Golden Mile, will acquire the heliport that was available to Juan Antonio Roca in Los Manchones Altos, in the Nagüeles area. Roca, the powerful former urban planning advisor from 1991 to 2006 and the mastermind behind the urban corruption of the GIL.

Lexel Spain 2020 has outperformed its two competitors to secure these facilities in the tender issued by the Marbella City Council: a joint venture formed by World Aviation and Helifan, two companies sharing a sole administrator and offering airplane and helicopter pilot courses and panoramic trips, and the Community of Owners of the luxury development Marbella Hill Club II, close to the facilities. And it has done so both in the economic offer and in the technical proposal.

The company has doubled the minimum annual fee required by the City Council to reach 127,200 euros

The company based at the Marbella Club has offered an annual fee of 127,200 euros, an amount that is more than twice above the minimum set in the tender (62,112 euros) and significantly ahead of the second-best offer, that of the joint venture (85,632), while the community of owners decided to stay at the base amount. The contract will last for four years with the possibility of an equal extension, so the heliport could bring the City Council revenue of more than one million euros.

The proposal from the company based on Marbella's Golden Mile has also been the best valued in the technical section, with 43 points out of a possible 45 in the evaluation carried out by the contracting board, which greatly exceeds the 'scores' obtained by the joint venture (32.5 points) and the community of owners (a mere 8 points).

"Greater added value"

For the Los Manchones Altos heliport to be operational again, the facilities need to be conditioned and meet all legal requirements to obtain the approval of the State Agency for Air Safety (AESA), and Lexel Spain's offer includes an initial investment of up to 1.1 million euros, almost ten times more than that offered by the sector company (120,000 euros). This investment volume, with the improvement plan presented, and the maintenance program leads municipal technicians to assert that this is the proposal that "provides greater added value" to facilities that will eventually revert to the City Council once the concession ends.

Municipal technicians maintain that the proposal offers an "adequate" allocation of human resources, "balanced between safety, service continuity, and economic sustainability"

Furthermore, the Marbella-based firm plans to hire up to seven workers (a heliport manager, an operations technician, two or three maintenance and gardening operators, and two administrative staff), which is why the contracting board also values its "high social and operational value" due to the number of people hired and because it "amply covers the necessary operability".

Thus, municipal technicians maintain that the proposal offers an "adequate" allocation of human resources for the heliport installation, "balanced between safety, service continuity, and economic sustainability" which meets the requirements of a highly specialized use.