If you have a million euros, you can demolish an iconic building in Mallorca.

PalmOne million and a few hundred is what it will cost Inmobiliaria Formentor to have demolished an iconic building, the Formentor Hotel, without a permit. And not only that: immediately afterward, the construction of the new building was carried out from scratch, for which it also lacked a permit.

How can an undertaking of this magnitude be carried out right under the government's nose? The answer is simple: by doing it and hoping that the municipal administration doesn't halt the works and decree the completion of the project. "This is what the Pollença City Council should have done, and all they did was a ridiculous work stoppage of a few days," says a public administration technician who requests anonymity when asked how a company can take over such a large building without immediately halting the works, and, above all, without assistance. "I suppose there was no interest in doing anything," says the same source.

The initial project for the renovation of the Formentor Hotel, drawn up by the Lamela studio, made it clear that new construction was not possible in Formentor because licenses were suspended, as the ARA Baleares project had announced. It was not possible to 'take everything'. The only thing that could be done, if they wanted to force the law, was to take everything without permission.

And so it was. In 2022, upon learning of the total demolition, the Pollença City Council (with Andrés Nevado as mayor) decreed a halt to the works because the hotel had been demolished without permission. To everyone's surprise, just a few days later, on October 28, 2022, the mayor himself signed a decree legalizing the demolition, although there was only a renovation license and not a complete reconstruction license. This decision was heavily criticized by the municipal left and by environmentalists from the GOB, who considered taking the case to court.

Months of unlicensed construction

In the spring of 2023, the GOB denounced what few people understood: how could the continuation of the works have been authorized if there was no new construction permit, even though the City Council had legalized the demolition. On June 9, when the left had already won the elections, Andrés Nevado, as acting mayor, signed a new decree granting a reconstruction permit and legalizing the works carried out without authorization.

In June of that year, the GOB formalized the administrative dispute that is still ongoing today and greatly worries the current government due to the financial liabilities that a hypothetical cancellation of the permit could entail. The twin of this conflict is whether a municipal permit could be granted for new construction when such permits were suspended on the Formentor peninsula.

Martí March's fines

Already in 2024, months after the new municipal government team headed by Martí March took office, the Pollença City Council imposed a €5.1 million fine on the property for rebuilding without a permit. This Tuesday, it was learned that the aforementioned fine has been considerably reduced to €1.15 million, applying the discounts provided for in the LUIB and taking into account the license granted in 2023. The GOB considers the reduction "a failure in the defense of the territory," but at the same time emphasizes that its complaint was crucial.

Formentor's urban development aspirations are not over.

In January 2025, Martí March decreed a suspension of all planning licenses on the Formentor peninsula to prevent new developments—especially luxury ones—that "could threaten the sustainability and balance of a unique and delicate territory," as the mayor has acknowledged on several occasions. This suspension of licenses entails the development of a new urban planning proposal for Formentor, which will be debated between pressure from those who want to continue building villas and the views of environmentalists who demand that nothing more be built in the area. Among the developers who have aspirations for villas, specifically a development of the style known as 'villas', is precisely the same company that has managed to build the Formentor and obtain the license despite not having complied with the authorizations it had.