
The Canary Islands Government approved last July the purchase of the Ministry of Education building located on Tres de Mayo Avenue in Santa Cruz, owned by the City Council of the capital, as a result of the payment of the civil liability of the Teresitas Case. Yesterday, the Ministry of Finance, headed by Román Rodríguez (NC), authorized the signing of the first payment for that purchase, finally valued at 30 million euros. As DIARIO DE AVISOS has learned, the authorization of the expense is made for a first payment of 14 million euros, and will be signed before a notary in the next few days.
In addition, the Government of the Canary Islands, through the Rodríguez area, commits to the advance payment of the remaining 16 million, so that the total amount of the 30 million is completed so that the Autonomous Community becomes the owner of a property in which, in addition to the Ministry of Education, there is also the Canary Islands Tax Agency. A building for which he has been paying 300,000 euros a year in rent, first to the original owner, Antonio Plasencia, and since last year to the Santa Cruz City Council.
Thus, the Government of the Canary Islands will pay those 30 million euros to exercise the purchase option, which, added to the 50 million that it has paid for the rent from 2005 to date, places the global amount of the operation at 81 million euros. euros, as reported by the regional Executive last July.
In this way, the purchase of the building will allow a saving to the coffers of the Autonomous Community during the useful life of the property (50 years) of 58 million euros, since the rent in that same period (2005-2056) would have meant a disbursement of 140 million euros. The Government then explained that, to that saving of 58 million by exercising the purchase option instead of continuing with the lease, it is added that the Government of the Canary Islands is left with a property valued at 23 million euros once the property is obtained and at the end of its useful life.
Finally, he pointed out that of the 30 million euros of the purchase option, seven million will be paid this year and the rest in the next four, an amount that, finally, has been doubled with the authorization of those 14 million and the commitment advance payment of the other 16.
The Santa Cruz City Council took ownership of the property located in Tres de Mayo through the Las Teresitas Case ruling, in which the convicts also had to compensate the Consistory with more than 90 million euros. Part of that payment was made with the delivery of the property in which the Ministry of Education is located, and with the Auditorium building, which stands in the Cabo Llanos area and which still does not have a defined use, and that the City Council of Santa Cruz is also willing to sell.
Although these are not the only properties that the Chicharrero Consistory negotiates with the Government of the Canary Islands for sale.
The hotel plot owned by the Corporation in Cabo Llanos, measuring 3,053 square meters, which adjoins the access roundabout to the Tres de Mayo avenue tunnel with Doctor Antonio Perera Reyes street, and with the Constitución and Víctor Zurita Soler avenues (next to the Santa Cruz bus interchange), and which has commercial and tourist-hotel use, is the space, one of the most valuable in its heritage the Santa Cruz City Council, in which the Government of the Canary Islands wants to build a new multipurpose building for the capital, and this was communicated to the Consistory this same year, thus opening a negotiation to materialize this possible sale.
The Cabo Llanos property, next on the list for sale
The Santa Cruz City Council will see its accounts increased for 2022 with those first 14 million euros. Money that could be increased if, finally, it also manages to sell the building that stands in Cabo Llanos and that the City Council of the capital has also offered to the Government of the Canary Islands, which has shown interest in its acquisition, as confirmed by the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, a few months ago. The sale operation to the Canarian Executive would be linked to the future City of Justice, to locate judicial offices in the property, and the price that the Consistory expects to receive would exceed 20 million.