The Government risks paying compensation if the Hard Rock does not prosper

The Government of Pere Aragonès is at a crossroads over the plan to build the Hard Rock casino in Salou (Tarragona).

And not only because it is between a rock and a hard place by conditioning its two potential partners, socialist and common, to support budgets in the opposite direction to the recreational complex.

If the plan does not prosper, the Catalan Executive risks having to also pay millionaire compensation for damages to the promoting company in addition to international discredit for going back on a decision already made.

ERC and PSC are close (66 seats together) to a budget agreement, but are two seats short of a majority.

The Generalitat has precedents, such as the ruling that forced it to compensate the consortium that was awarded the privatization of Aguas Ter Llobregat that another court had overturned.

More information

Jéssica Albiach: “If Hard Rock is so important to Aragonès, he still has to look for other majorities for the budgets”

Almost six years ago, in May 2018, the Department of Economy awarded the American company a license to install and operate a casino to build the Hard Rock Entertainment World venue between Vila-seca and Salou.

It was the only one despite the fact that there were three possible authorizations.

At that time, Aragonès was number two in the department.

The agreement meant accepting the architectural project of the complex and an initial investment of 700 million was foreseen (a figure later increased).

As a guarantee, the tourism and leisure group had to present a guarantee of 10 million euros, although it later had to present a similar guarantee to Incasòl for the reservation of the land on which to build the venue.

In this way, the company has an acquired right, which would open a legal avenue to file litigation.

Government sources assure that the contract does not mention the possible collection of compensation if the project falls due to the lack of the urban master plan, the procedure that the regional Executive has pending approval.

Once the granting of the license was approved, the process to carry out the project was delayed.

On the one hand, the sale and purchase of the land, which is owned by Criteria Caixa (the investment arm of La Caixa), was postponed at the express request of Hard Rock.

On the other hand, the urban master plan (PDU), which once approved ran afoul of the courts, forcing the Government to rework it.

It is in that phase that the entire process is currently in.

The Department of Territory has it in its hands to adapt it to the court ruling taking into account two reports commissioned from the Environment and Civil Protection.

And the opposition, especially the socialists, insist that it be done now despite the resistance of Esquerra, due to the pressure it has in the territory of its bases and in the Parliament of the Commons, who have been its crutch in recent years to approve the accounts.

Approving the PDU would mean entering another phase of risk.

Sources familiar with the process indicate that once the process is approved, a period of six months will open to close the sale of the land.

It is another complicated operation in this process.

The Government wanted to control this process, so it reached an agreement with Criteria to be an intermediary in the transfer process through a purchase option: once everything was ready, and in a matter of hours, it would acquire the land at financial holding of La Caixa and without a solution of continuity they would be transferred to the Seminoles group.

In some years, an item of 120 million euros has been reserved in the budgets to carry out this transaction, which is still pending.

A lot of time has passed since then and Criteria has requested an update of the price of the operation, which would now stand at 130 million euros.

But beyond the value of the operation there are other contractual factors pending closure.

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