A total of 13 companies have applied for licenses to build in El Mojón, the largest developable land area in the Canary Islands. The Arona City Council has prioritized the first five applications, which include three residential projects and two commercial ones. The first authorization granted was for a McDonald's restaurant.
This initiative, covering one million square meters (equivalent to 140 football fields), projects an investment exceeding one billion euros and the creation of over 4,000 jobs. The partial plan for El Mojón, which had been stalled for 30 years, will allow for the development of over 70 plots for tourism, residential, and commercial uses, as well as public facilities for education, sports, and culture.
Javier Baute, Councilor for Urban Planning in Arona, explained that the law requires applications to be processed in strict order of receipt, although the complexity of each project and the developers' responsiveness influence the processing speed. The activation of this population center, with a capacity for 9,000 tourist and residential beds, signifies the definitive unblocking of a plan initially approved in 1996.
The arrival of Miguel Villarroya as President of the Compensation Board in 2021 and the political change in the Arona City Council in 2023 have been key to advancing the project. Baute highlighted that the municipal government has managed to unblock "vital" urban planning initiatives for the future of the municipality, which has 90,000 inhabitants.
