El Ejido town hall has, as so many other shortsighted town halls have, bulldozed its Chiringuitos and instead installed futuristic looking beach bars which will be rented out. However, the local chamber of commerce has complained that the terms of rental are “abusive”.
Annual rent is €22,000 (inflation linked), despite the high season only being for a couple of months in the summer. The rentee can “improve” on this rent if they want to improve their chances of getting in!
The renter must have at least 12 years experience in the catering trade (as demonstrated by economic activity, which basically means self employed only).
You are expected to obtain and pay for all licenses yourself (even opening licenses!).
An annual insurance policy is specified which the Chamber of Commerce reckons is double what is required by law.
€12,000 must be deposited as a fianza, returnable at the end of the rental period (and inflation being what it is, it ain’t going to be worth €12,000 in a few years).
The rental period is for a minimum of 15 years, with a potential extension of a further 10 years. So if you go broke in your second year… you lose the €12K, plus penalties.
Plus staff costs, equipment, seating, and all the rest of the costs.
“Almerimar is not Torremolinos” says the Chamber of Commerce, “and this is ridiculous”. So far, the only interested parties seem to be large companies. Which means we’ll (well, not me, maybe Chris will) end up with nasty, expensive, tacky, unloveable chain bars along the beach.
I’m off to El CID for a drink.
This is a real shame!!!! I have a friend who runs one (Coco Beach) that is linked to the hotel.
You are right when you say that they will lose their character. I also doubt we will see many at all at those rates!
Chris has some recent photos of the construction work here:
http://almerimarlife.com/ugly-chiringuitos-in-almerimar
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