The Government justifies its yes to Hard Rock due to the high cost of canceling the megacasino

The Hard Rock project in Salou is once again gaining prominence without hardly anyone having seen a sketch of what the

resort

will be like with a casino, 100 gaming tables and 1,200 slot machines that has to be built on land adjacent to the Port Aventura park.

An idea, at the moment, not very tangible but that keeps the Catalan budgets in suspense due to the frontal refusal of the common people to vote yes to the accounts, if the Hard Rock is not locked in a drawer.

“It is not our country model, but there are things that are done and cannot be undone,” Patrícia Plaja, spokesperson for the Generalitat, alleged this Tuesday.

The Esquerra Government claims that it does not feel comfortable with the mega tourist complex but that it does not close the door due to the demands that the PSC makes to support the budgets.

Furthermore, it transcends the idea that Pere Aragonès' team is not willing to pay the economic cost that burying the Hard Rock would represent.

“The project is advanced and we are not contemplating assuming the cost that stopping it would entail,” spokesperson Plaja acknowledged this Tuesday in her press conference after the Executive Council.

Information published by EL PAIS this Tuesday reveals that if the plan does not prosper, the Catalan Executive risks having to pay millionaire compensation for damages to the promoter company in addition to international discredit for going back on a decision already made.

The Government avoids specifying what bill it would imply to give up Hard Rock now.

It is alleged that, at no point in what has been negotiated so far, has it been reflected what amount the North American multinational Hard Rock could claim for seeing its business expectations on the Costa Daurada cut short.

However, the Vice-Minister of Strategy and Communication of the Generalitat, Sergi Sabrià, has warned that turning back the tourist complex project is very difficult and would entail the Generalitat paying “very important compensations” to the private companies involved.

The land next to the Port Aventura park is owned by Criteria, La Caixa's investment company, and there is a commitment from Hard Rock to acquire the plots and invest, in a first phase, 700 million euros, which could reach 2,000 million once the entire project is completed.

Sabrià has stressed that the Hard Rock process “must continue;

among other things because, in the end, it is an agreement between private parties and today it has a majority in the Parliament.”

Regarding the compensation that the Hard Rock may generate, Xavier Pellicer, from the CUP, directly pointed out to the Executive: “The one who has gotten into this problem is the Government itself.”

Jéssica Albiach, leader of the commons, has stated that it is an “outdated” project and that it brings Catalonia closer to the “Madrid of Ayuso”.

And she has cited all the unexpected expenses that it would entail: more money in the

police

(due to the risk of attracting mafias for money laundering), in health (due to gambling disorders);

in drought due to spending on water consumption (they estimate eight million liters a day) and less income from the gambling tax.

In 2017, when he was Minister of Economy and Vice President of the Generalitat, Oriol Junqueras defended that the Hard Rock project was sustainable and economically realistic, in addition to presenting it as “humanly and environmentally sustainable.”

The president of ERC then guaranteed that the mega leisure complex, initially known as BCN World, was going to be “a very diversified project” with the capacity to “complement the tourist offer in the Tarragona area.”

Esquerra now maintains that Hard Rock is not its own bet, but that Aragonès and his Government are tied hand and foot by the commitments made in the past by previous Executives.

Plaja alleged this Tuesday that the Hard Rock contract is “a contract between private parties.”

When expressly asked if the Government maintains contact with the promoting company to find out if there is still interest in developing the project, the spokesperson stated that "it has spoken with the private sectors that are part of this initiative."

She did not reveal details.

“It is not appropriate to reveal the interests that the parties may have,” she concluded.

The Hard Rock project is still pending approval of the Urban Development Plan (PDU) on the land between Salou and Vila-seca.

Sources familiar with the operation indicate that the final drafting of the PDU will not be possible for a few months.

The environmental report that must specify the protocols that the work must follow is expected more quickly and Ercros, a chemical company installed in the area whose facilities condition the future of Hard Rock, is making the necessary investments to reverse risks that would currently condition the venue linked to the macrocasino.

In September 2020, the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) declared part of the previous urban plan null and void, at the request of the environmental entity Gepec.

The ruling ruled that the open spaces and public facilities had been designed in an area of ​​“risk of serious accidents” due to the proximity of the Tarragona petrochemical industrial estate.

Almost six years ago, in May 2018, the Department of Economy awarded the American company a license to install and operate a mega casino in Tarragona, under the commercial name of Hard Rock Entertainment World.

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

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

The agreement entailed approval of the architectural project of the complex and an initial investment of 700 million was foreseen.

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 the door to a legal avenue to claim compensation from the Generalitat.

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