Seven Million for Las Palmas: Four Districts Get the Funding

What's at stake

The Comisión de Urbanismo, Vivienda, Desarrollo Sostenible y Movilidad of the Ayuntamiento Las Palmas de Gran Canaria greenlit on 12 May four city building projects.

All four had already, in summer 2024, been earmarked under the Plan Adicional de Inversiones (PAI) of the Cabildo Gran Canaria with a total subsidy of 7 million euros for the capital.

It was only now, almost two years later, that the city decided on the concrete distribution of the funds across the budget years 2026 and 2027 — and chose mostly open and simplified tendering procedures to accelerate awards.

Background: the Cabildo's deadline for the accounting of the subsidised expenditures runs out on 31 December 2026. The city must by then have executed and settled the works — otherwise the money returns to the Cabildo.

The four projects in detail

1. Universidad Popular in the old Carlos Navarro Ruiz school building

At 3,458,110 euros the largest single project. Buildings 1 and 5 of the former school complex on Paseo de San José are being converted into the new adult-education centre.

2.64 M € are reserved for 2026, 811,329.51 € for 2027. Construction time: eight months.

2. Fire tower and building Miller Bajo

2,140,000 euros for the rehabilitation of the training tower and the fire-service building. With 14 months the longest construction period of all four projects.

1.89 M € for 2026, 267,630.38 € for 2027.

3. Centro Polivalente Suárez Naranjo

1,055,647 euros for the extension of the community centre in Arenales, at the corner Pamochamoso/Suárez Naranjo. The existing centre opened in June 2011 and is co-managed with the Asociación Socio Cultural Fuera de la Portada.

725,000 € for 2026, 330,647.03 € for 2027. Construction time: seven months.

4. Open spaces in the Isla Perdida district

1,050,000 euros for the upgrade of public open spaces in the Schamann sub-district of Isla Perdida. Construction time: eight months.

797,000 € for 2026, 360,332.62 € for 2027.

The total of the four projects amounts to 7.71 M € — more than the Cabildo subsidy of 7 M €. The difference of about 700,000 € is borne by the city budget.

The four project locations and their investment amounts. Graphic: CITA News.

The bigger frame: 69 M € for 21 municipalities

The 7 million euros for Las Palmas de Gran Canaria are part of a larger pot from the Cabildo Gran Canaria.

In July 2024, Cabildo president Antonio Morales (Nueva Canarias, centre-left) presented the Plan Adicional de Inversiones (PAI) with a total budget of 69 million euros for all 21 island municipalities.

Distribution by population size: a minimum of 2 M € for municipalities under 10,000 inhabitants, 3 M € for 10,000 to 20,000, 4 M € for 20,000 to 50,000. The capital Las Palmas with over 380,000 inhabitants received the maximum.

The pot was financed from Tesorería surpluses of the Cabildo from the 2023 fiscal year. In total, 33 «emblematic and strategic» buildings in all 21 municipalities are to be completed by the end of 2026.

Who benefits, who waits

The four Las Palmas projects address different needs. The Universidad Popular is a long-tradition educational offering that has been waiting for years for a permanent site. The Miller fire tower is infrastructure for the red brigade — important for a growing city.

The Centro Suárez Naranjo in Arenales is a community centre, co-managed with the Asociación Socio Cultural Fuera de la Portada — a typical model for neighbourhood participation.

The upgrade of Isla Perdida in the Schamann district addresses an area with visible investment backlog. The population has been waiting for years for improvements to the public open spaces.

Not financed by the PAI, but running in parallel, are eight further projects worth 4.8 M € that the Ayuntamiento separately tendered in the first quarter of 2026 — among them a new biodiversity zone in Tamaraceite and the upgrade of the La Laja sea pools.