Costa del Sol property now for sale: 353 apartments planned on the site of Torremolinos' former Meliá hotel starting from €423k to €1.15 million

Property

Seville-based property developer Grupo ABU is marketing this residential development that will have up to seven levels, on a plot of land on Avenida Carlota Alessandri, with over 12,500 square metres of land and 40,000 square metres of buildable area

José Rodríguez Cámara

Torremolinos

The cheapest apartment on offer is a one-bedroom, 70-square-metre, ground floor, exterior-facing unit with a parking space included. In contrast, the ... most expensive is a 139-square-metre penthouse, also with parking, four bedrooms and externally facing, but for an asking price of 1.15 million euros.

These are the two extremes of the range in which the homes already being sold by the ABU Group are operating. The Seville-based developer is mobilising an investment of 250 million euros to build 353 homes on the site of the former Meliá Tres Carabelas hotel in Torremolinos, currently a huge unused space that is only a short distance from La Carihuela beach.

The retail space

In this future residential complex, named Magna, two and three-bedroomed units are also available, priced between 494,000 and 838,000 euros, depending on which floor and size. The development includes, at street level, a commercial arcade with 25 retail and restaurant premises on the outside of the building.

The complex offers 40,000 square metres of buildable area on a 12,688-square-metre plot. It also features swimming pools, a social club, a gym and a coworking space. At its core is a central recreational area with landscaped gardens. Underground parking will provide approximately 750 spaces, as explained by ABU.

A stepped design

The building will be adapted to follow the natural slope on the plot, reaching up to seven floors (the maximum height permitted for this site: ground floor plus six more levels) on Avenida Carlota Alessandri. It will be stepped parallel to Avenida de España, first with six levels, then with five, including the street level, up to Calle Puerto Real, where the main façade will maintain this stepped design, that is, a ground floor plus four floors.

Due to the slope, the design stipulates that the commercial premises will be located between the ground floor and floor -2 of the build, with the residential units facing Avenida de España above. Several entranceways are also planned: one on the corner of the two avenues (Carlota Alessandri and España) and another from the shopping arcade itself, which will be connected in turn to Avenida Carlota Alessandri and Calle Nerja.

On the roof, where the penthouses with solarium and private swimming pool will be located, there will be a panoramic communal terrace and landscaped gardens.

Regarding the layout of these apartments, the developer anticipates that the kitchen, living room and dining room, in most cases, will be a single open-plan space, with access to the terrace.

Formal procedures

The initial approval of the planning study to use this plot of land was granted by the local governing board for Torremolinos council in September and was published in the official gazette for Malaga province on 27 October 2025 for public review. At that time, the relevant sectoral reports were requested.

This step came almost a year after the regional government approved the investment plans, based on the change of land use. This, in turn, formed part of the agreement for the construction of housing in this part of the town centre, an agreement that had received town council support back in 2023.

Under this agreement, Torremolinos council will receive significant financial compensation, amounting to 15 per cent of the profits generated, five points above the legal minimum.

This operation will bring back to life a site that has been abandoned since 2009, where only a rudimentary structure remains, the result of an attempt to build a five-star hotel, with 22 floors and even a helipad, which was to be called Cruiser.

The Junta de Andalucía had raised objections to that previous construction attempt and these misgivings forced a modification of the original architectural plans, despite hotel use having already been approved. The investors of that idea could not afford the required expenditure and so work was halted.

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