Storm damage near Arguineguín: the sealed promenade at the Cordial Resort and the dispute over its repair

Anyone hoping to walk the promenade from Resort Cordial Santa Águeda towards La Playa de Arguineguín these last few days found police tape and a municipal seal instead. On 21 April, the Town Hall of San Bartolomé de Tirajana ordered the closure of the wooden platforms of the solarium — on 23 April, the Local Police carried it out. The reason: after storm Therese hit at the end of March, the platforms are at risk of collapse, the micropiles undermined, slats loose, railings torn off.

A week earlier, the Town Hall had formally instructed the owner to repair the damage immediately. On 24 April, the answer arrived. In essence: we cannot.

The pingpong of jurisdiction

The promenade — 384 metres long, 1,800 square metres — was built in 2020 by the private company Propiedades Cordiales SL, with an investment of more than two million euros. It forms part of the resort complex with 87 luxury holiday homes and the largest family beach club in the Canary Islands. But it doesn't sit on private land. It sits on public maritime-terrestrial domain — under the jurisdiction of the Directorate General of Costas of the Canary Islands government.

In 2022, the company applied for a 75-year concession of the land. Costas did not reply. Up to today. The promenade was built and operated in a legal grey zone that bothered no one as long as the weather held.

On 7 April 2026 — barely a week after the storm — Propiedades Cordiales wrote to Costas with a technical report. It documented the undermining of the micropiles and warned of the urgent need for repair. The company argues that under current coastal law, maintenance and repair in such cases fall to the competent administration — that is, to Costas, not to a private developer without a concession title.

The Town Hall sees it differently. The 21 April sealing order names the owner as the addressee. He must act. He says: I am not allowed to.

Costas remains silent.

What tourists lose

For five years the promenade has connected the two fishing districts of El Pajar in San Bartolomé de Tirajana and La Playa de Arguineguín in Mogán. It is more than a hotel appendage. Anyone living in the south of Gran Canaria — whether resident or long-stay guest — knows it as one of the few continuous coastal walkways in the west of the island. People living between Patalavaca and Arguineguín have used it for running, walking, watching the sunset.

Tourists checking into one of the 87 Cordial apartments had direct access to the beach club via the platforms. The beach club itself remains open, as does Playa Santa Águeda — seven minutes on foot. But the elevated wooden walkway, which made the experience, is closed. Until further notice. When that notice comes, no one can currently say.

The second story almost no one tells

What gets lost in the current coverage: the Town Hall has been planning a comprehensive modernisation of that very promenade since February, with its own funds. The Strategic Subsidy Plan of Turismo de Gran Canaria sets aside 862,660.58 euros for the refurbishment. The municipal budget lists the rehabilitation of the paseo de Santa Águeda en El Pajar with 907,375 euros for 2026, announced by Mayor Marco Aurelio Pérez in December 2025.

This investment is part of a larger package of 11.8 million euros for coastal improvement in 2026 — Cabildo and Town Hall jointly, managed by the Consorcio Maspalomas Gran Canaria. The money is there. The tender is underway. The competence question for this stretch was clarified in February.

And yet: between the sealing on 23 April and the start of construction lies a temporal vacuum that no one bridges. Not the private owner, who is not allowed. Not Costas, which stays silent. Not the Town Hall, which tenders but does not perform the emergency repair. Not the Consortium, whose schedule foresees six months of construction from contract signing — the contract has not yet been signed.

A pattern with consequences

What becomes visible at El Perchel is no isolated case. It is a pattern that keeps appearing in the tourist south: a private company builds on public land with an unclear concession status. As long as nothing breaks, no one asks for paperwork. When something breaks, the pingpong begins. The administrations point at each other. The owner points at the administrations. The administrations point at the owner. The structure deteriorates further because no one is allowed to act — or no one wants to.

At the Maspalomas dunes viewpoint, also after Therese, ten bungalows had to be sealed off. There too the land belongs to Costas, there too the repair hangs in suspension. The pattern repeats.

The south of Gran Canaria lives off tourism. Promenades, beaches, viewpoints are the calling card of a region competing with other Mediterranean and Atlantic destinations. When weeks or months pass after every storm before a 384-metre promenade is repaired, the cost is not just the owner's reputation. It is the whole region's.

What is needed now

Three clear steps:

First: Costas must answer. To the 2022 concession application and to the technical letter of 7 April 2026. Silence is not an administrative act.

Second: The Town Hall should clarify whether the sealing was meant as a pure safety measure or as a pressure instrument against the owner. Both are legitimate, but they require communication.

Third: The Consorcio Maspalomas should examine whether an emergency repair of the affected stretch is possible before the tendered full rehabilitation. The 907,375 euros in the municipal budget are intended for modernisation, not for damage repair. A transitional solution is needed here.

Otherwise what remains is what is already visible at El Perchel: police tape between two fishing districts, a police seal on a wooden platform, and the silent acknowledgement that in the south of Gran Canaria, things get built but not always maintained.

Sources: Canarias7 reporting from 23 and 24 April 2026 on the sealing and on Propiedades Cordiales SL's response; press release Consorcio Maspalomas Gran Canaria from February 2026 on the tender for the Paseo de Santa Águeda refurbishment; budget announcement by the Mayor of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Marco Aurelio Pérez, from December 2025; Canarias7 reporting from 10 April 2026 on the first cordoning. Editorial cut-off: 25 April 2026.