Málaga City Council has received no bids for the €209 million contract to build a concert auditorium at the city’s port, leaving the procurement process at a standstill. The council will have to restart the tender, according to the available report.
The project, presented by Mayor Francisco de la Torre, is intended to provide a new music venue in the port area. The failed tender does not mean construction has been cancelled, but it means the city must take the project back through procurement before a construction company can be appointed.
The report says the council had received strong preliminary interest from construction firms, but none submitted an offer by the revised deadline. It also says the latest setback follows the Culture Ministry’s withdrawal from the project’s funding arrangements.
There has also been a challenge to the tender documents by the CNC, Spain’s national construction confederation. The council accepted the appeal and amended the documents, which delayed the deadline for bids. The report does not specify what the confederation challenged or how the funding arrangements will change following the ministry’s withdrawal.
The immediate consequence is a further delay for a project that has been planned for years. With the procurement needing to begin again, it is now considered unlikely that the process will be completed before the current municipal term ends next May. That deadline concerns the tender process; no revised construction timetable is provided.
The next step is for the city council to relaunch procurement. The available information does not give a date for a new tender or say whether the project’s cost, design or financing will be revised before it is issued again.