The Palmetum Santa Cruz will receive until 2026 an investment close to nine million euros with which it is intended to complete the project that was inaugurated in 2014, opening to the public a leisure and restoration area at the entrance of the botanical garden, creating new viewpoints, or incorporating new species. A bird watching point will also be built, or the nurseries that nurture the space with new species will be expanded and improved. In total there will be more than 5,000 square meters that will be opened for the enjoyment of the public, and the investment, from which the Maritime Park will also benefit, will be 8.5 million euros.
This was announced yesterday by Mayor of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez, together with the delegate councilor of the Development Society, Alfonso Cabello, and the manager of the Maritime Park, Daniel Cañibano, after the Board of Directors of the Maritime Park company, which manages both the swimming pools and the botanical garden. As detailed by the mayor, “we are talking about recovering species, we will have new viewpoints, leisure spaces and improved equipment for the pool complex.” Bermúdez insisted that “these are projects that have already been drafted, so they are not ideas of what we want to do, it is what is going to be done.”
Alfonso Cabello was in charge of detailing the most ambitious interventions, starting with the leisure and restaurant area at the gates of the Palmetum, in which 2.2 million will be invested. “We want to dignify the Palmetum entrance, where we will have 130 parking spaces (half of what there are now), in which we will generate shaded areas with a photovoltaic installation throughout the car park, which will make us 100% energy self-sufficient, we will even be able to pour the surplus energy into the network, which will also supply the Maritime Park”. There will be three dining areas and a playground.
As the mayor advanced, “although the deadlines we handle are those of 2023-2026, there is the possibility of attending new calls for the Next Generation, which could speed up the intervention.”
The second action detailed by Cabello is related to the change of location and expansion of the nurseries of the botanical garden, in which 1.4 million will be invested. “We moved them to the Palmetum service area, gaining space, and allowing them to become a place to receive researchers from other points, which right now, due to the situation they are in, is not possible,” explained the mayor .
The transfer of the nurseries will free up the area for the installation of a cafeteria, which now lacks space, “which will be located in the highest part of the Palmetum”, making this intervention the third project, which will cost about 956,000 euros, and which will take place on the Caribe Bajo esplanade, which will also be open to the public.
The fourth project will involve the construction of the Interpretation Center, planned in the original development and which can now be started up. “It will be in the innermost part, and there will be exhibitions, samples that we have stored or audiovisual material for visitors.” The cost of this part exceeds 1.3 million.
The fifth intervention has to do with the secondary activity that the implementation of Palmetum in Santa Cruz has brought with it, and which is none other than acting as a refuge for many of the birds that pass through the capital. “We will open a new species exhibition area, creating another lake in the interior, and in whose surroundings we will install a bird watching point,” explained Cabello. The investment in this part, which they have called Hide, Lagos y Caminos, is 329,000 euros.
The last of the announcements made by the delegated mayor of the Development Society is the creation of a thermophilic path, so that it can be crossed through the current space dedicated to native species that receives visitors, to which will be added a new viewpoint at the top of the path.
In addition to the Palmetum, the Maritime Park will be renovated
As far as the Maritime Park is concerned, the changing rooms will be changed, the swimming pools will be intervened to make them watertight and prevent leaks, and photovoltaic panels will be installed on the roof of the Waterfall building.
As for the times, Cabello advanced that “our intention is that the plates for the Waterfall come out this year, and also the tender for the writing of the entry.”
Precisely this intervention, the most striking, has been able to be unblocked by giving up the sports area that was intended to be installed at the entrance to the car park, which would join the Paseo del Auditorio. “This part of the project collided with that of the Cabildo for the southern train, whose interchange would go to that area,” said Cabello.
