[DBMarcos99]

A great idea, another white elephant, or a hoax? You decide

http://www.barcelonaisland.com/Home

http://www.hospitalitydaily.com/investors-announce-planned-e1-5-billion-space-hotel-on-an-island-off-barcelona-658/

News report in Spanish

http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2013/05/18/catalunya/1368873642_884288.html

[DBMarcos99]

It seems the project is being derided from an early stage!

http://skift.com/2013/05/03/new-barcelona-island-hotel-project-will-be-the-tallest-ugliest-hotel-in-europe/

[Anonymous]

First I’ve heard of it. All sounds rather farfetched, to put it mildly 😀

I’ll ask around, but I’d be very surprised if there is any substance to this…….don’t really know what to call it.

[peterhun]

Hoax. Quite obviously not designed by an architect, because it looks rubbish and is impossible to build.

And 1.5 billion is a few billion out for a deep sea island.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know about any of you but I’m rushing to put down a deposit on the “Mobilona Space Mansion™” at €70 million. I don’t want to let this unique opportunity slip through my fingers 😆

I love all the logos – like something out of sci-fi for teenagers.

I also love the home page, though I can’t quite put my finger on why 😀 . It’s difficult to see what on earth it has to do with this “project”:

[attachment=0:c4o21xm6]Barcelona-island-homepage.jpg[/attachment:c4o21xm6]

This seems to be the heart of the sale pitch:

Buyers can apply for membership in the Mobilona Hotel Owners Group to reserve income-producing units at preconstruction prices for purchase or resale.

Hotel suites and residences start around €495,000, penthouses range from €3.9 to €20 million and the 6-story Mobilona Space Mansion™ is offered at €70 million with an optional private heliport and a 200-meter (656 foot) covered yacht dock.

Through a fully licensed and approved separate entity, Mobilona will offer income-producing hotel units for sale, including timeshares from €20,000 for an annual one­-week occupancy right. Rates for hotel suites range from €300 to over €1,500 per night.

They claim that the “300-Meter (984 feet) Galaxy Tower by Architect ERIK MORVAN will be Europe’s tallest hotel building”
No mention of any of this at the architect’s website: http://www.erikmorvan.com/3-maison/index_en.html

[DBMarcos99]

They’ve obviously put a bit of effort into the website – for instance it’s in various languages including Catalan, Spanish, English, and Chinese…
Not that means great technical skills (I have language switchers on some of my websites) but it does involve organising semi-decent translations. I don’t think they’ve used google translate as that gives very bad text copy.
My main query on this is – would the building of “Europe’s tallest building” interfere with Barcelona airport’s flight paths? I suspect that for this reason alone, the project is a non-goer. Or have I misjudged the geography Mark?

[Chopera]

There could be something to this. They’ve even gone as far as building a full scale model in order to attract investors:

[DBMarcos99]

@Chopera wrote:

There could be something to this. They’ve even gone as far as building a full scale model in order to attract investors:

That settles it! I’m in!

[DBMarcos99]

Reported in the Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/10068945/Dubai-style-island-off-coast-of-Barcelona-provokes-dismay.html

“We have no need or desire to take on projects of this nature,” Xavier Trias, the mayor from Catalonia’s centre-right nationalist CiU party, said in an interview with the Catalan news channel 3/24, while admitting the City Hall will give the proposal due consideration.

[Anonymous]

This “project” is basking in attention from leading Spanish and international papers. For example, it gets taken seriously in this article at El Pais, Spain’s leading daily.

I can’t take it seriously at all. To have any hope of getting off the ground, or should I say the ocean floor, it would need the full backing of the municipal, regional, and national Governments, plus very, very deep pockets.

On the other hand it costs very little to put together a website with some tacky logos and pretty pictures, and make some preposterous claims in the press and get lots of attention. And let us not forget there is a sign up form for the “ownership” packages…..

Buyers can currently apply for membership in the Mobilona Hotel Owners Group to reserve units at discounted preconstruction prices. A separately regulated entity will offer income-producing hotel suites and residences for purchase or resale from €495,000 to €2.6 million and penthouses from €3.9 to €20 million. Nightly rates for hotel suites will range from €300 to over €1,500 and timeshares will start at €20,000 for an annual one-week occupancy right.

I know what this is about. Seen it before 😈

And the more I see the renders, the more it looks like teenage scifi fantasy.

[Anonymous]

Some great quotes in this straight-faced article (in Spanish) about how the developers confirm they are going ahead with an initial investment of €1.5 billion (which no doubt they found in their pocket) and how they will supply Barcelona with renewable energy.

This has to be a joke.

[Author]

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