Court now says it will expropriate Can Pesquet after the plot ended up in the hands of a vulture fund

PalmaThe Palma City Council has failed to fulfill its commitment to the residents of Son Sardina to acquire the Can Pesquet plot and turn it into a public space.

More than two years after the municipal plenary approved the purchase, the plot, of about 1,600 square meters, remains in private hands and even has a banner from Solvia, from Banco Sabadell, installed to market it. Now, given the impossibility of materializing the purchase under the initial terms, Cort assures that it is trying to reach an agreement with the current owner and that, if it is not possible, it will resort to expropriation.

The Consistory has reiterated its commitment that Can Pesquet will become municipal property and that the land will be used to meet the public facility needs of Son Sardina. The mayor, Jaime Martínez, has assured that "Can Pesquet will be public" and has defended his "unequivocal will to fulfill this demand that has not materialized for years".

The problem is that the commitment announced by Cort has not yet translated into effective ownership of the land. According to the City Council, after the mayor announced his intention to acquire the plot, negotiations began with Solvia, the entity responsible for its commercialization. Subsequently, however, Solvia sold the plot to a third party despite knowing, according to Cort, the municipal interest in acquiring it and allocating it to public facilities.

Since then, the City Council assures that it has continued to seek a way to effectively acquire it. It is now working to reach a purchase agreement with the current owner and, if negotiations do not reach a successful conclusion, it will initiate the expropriation procedure.

Residents denounce Cort's inaction

The Son Sardina neighborhood movement, however, considers that this situation evidences the non-compliance with the Council's promise. The associations recall that, at the beginning of the legislature, they informed Jaime Martínez and especially the second deputy mayor, Lourdes Roca, a resident of Son Sardina, that the creation of a public square and a public center in Can Pesquet was one of the demands "with the most support and most urgent" for the collective life of the town.

In May 2024, the municipal plenary session approved, with the support of the PP, the commitment to acquire the plot to create a square there. Subsequently, the neighbors requested information on the status of the negotiations and assure that councilor Llorenç Bauzà had promised them a meeting before the end of last year, but they did not receive the expected explanations.

Faced with this silence, the associative fabric promoted several gatherings and a signature collection that achieved more than 1,000 signatures in just four months. Now, the neighbors consider that the fact that the plot remains in private hands and that a banner from a vulture fund has been installed there increases "discredit towards the policies, by action and by omission, of the current Council".

The risk of it ending up in private hands

The neighborhood movement also warns of the risk that the plot may end up being designated for private development. The association recalls that the General Plan currently reserves the land for open spaces and facilities, but questions the effects that the new urban planning regulations approved by Parliament may have.

According to the neighbors, the new Land Law could prevail over previous provisions and allow private developments. They consider that this could favor speculative interests and the real estate business instead of guaranteeing the public space that the town demands.

Cort, on the other hand, defends that his intention remains unequivocal: to make Can Pesquet public. To achieve this, he will now have to close an agreement with the current owner or activate the expropriation route. Meanwhile, more than two years after the municipal commitment, the plot continues to not be publicly owned.

MÉS accuses Martínez of "letting the plot go"

The neighborhood criticism has been joined by MÉS per Palma, who have accused the mayor of allowing Can Pesquet to end up in private hands after promising to acquire it to build a square, a neighborhood center, and a car park.

The eco-sovereignists have demanded explanations from Martínez for the alleged breach of a promise that, according to the party, "generated an expectation throughout Son Sardina." They have also demanded that the City Council find a solution to ensure that the neighborhood has the facilities that were promised.

The councilor of MÉS per Palma, Miquel Àngel Contreras, has been particularly forceful: "Martínez promised it. The PP has let it go." According to Contreras, the mayor "generated an expectation across Son Sardina and has not fulfilled it," for which reason "he must explain why."

The councilor has argued that the facilities demanded by the neighbors are not "privileges, but spaces for community building." "The center is a necessary neighborhood demand and the mayor himself said it would be a reality. A mayor's promises cannot be just press headlines," he stated.

MÉS has also focused on the urban planning approved during the last legislature. According to the party, the General Urban Planning Plan reserved spaces like Can Pesquet to convert them into public facilities, either through purchase or expropriation. This reservation, according to the eco-sovereignists, allowed the plots to be conditioned for future public use even if they were privately owned, a situation that limited "speculative expectations."

Contreras accuses the PP of having eliminated this protection upon arriving at the municipal government and of having then delayed in acting to acquire Can Pesquet. "We protected spaces so that they would end up in the hands of the citizens. The PP removed this protection and then delayed in buying Can Pesquet. The result is clear: what was meant for Son Sardina is now private," he stated. The councilor has compared the case to that of the old Iris cinema in Palma. "First they promise. Then they delay. Finally, a private individual buys it. This is the PP's model," he concluded.