The abandoned villa that Manacor wants to buy to avoid losing 2 million euros

ManacorIt's one of Portocristo's most recognizable sights. And, at the same time, curiously, one of its least known. The large villa at the top of the Blau coast (officially Bordils Street) has been abandoned for years in the middle of a private pine forest, under the watchful eyes of locals and tourists on their way down to the beach.

The grand house, with its distinctive volumes and a white tower with its characteristic blue windows, is now a target for the Manacor City Council, which has expressed interest in purchasing it in recent months and has inquired about a price from the two brothers who inherited the property. The sequence of events is as follows: Between 2021 and 2022, during the previous legislative term, the Manacor City Council, through the Councilor responsible for Tourism—at the time, Maria Antònia Truyols—officially presented an ambitious tourism project to put Portocristo on the map as a year-round destination. The aim was to achieve two things simultaneously: firstly, to construct an underwater reef that would regenerate the marine flora and fauna, which had been severely damaged for decades by the trawling nets of fishing boats. And secondly, to take the opportunity to sink scale replicas of half a dozen historic ships from various centuries in Portocristo (such as the Roman remains of Ses Llumetes) and create a kind of underwater museum for divers, a rare feat in Spain that would therefore attract tourism throughout the year.

The project, which already had funding from the European Union through the Next Generation funds and a budget of 2 million euros, was supposed to be finished by June 2025. But the constant problems the Administration encountered in carrying out each of the technical steps (and after Europe granted a one-year extension) led the AI ​​councilor to declare two months ago that neither the reef nor the interpretation center-museum that was supposed to open in the yacht club buildings will be completed.

Two million to spend

So… should the two million euros granted by the European Union be returned? This is what both the Tourism Department and the Manacor City Council as a whole have been trying to prevent for months, redirecting the funds elsewhere: in this case, towards the purchase of the iconic Can Blau villa. Talks with the family that owns the property and land, through their lawyers in Palma (since they live in Puerto Rico), have been ongoing with various financial offers. The negotiations don't involve the entire Can Blau plot, which is between 7,000 and 8,000 square meters, but rather the house and part of the adjacent land. The City Council's advantage is that the property is listed as a historical landmark by the Manacor City Council and, therefore, protected. Thus, it cannot be altered or seized. The remaining land, if necessary, could be used for urban development to build between seven and eight villas or private homes. Negotiations began with a price between 1.3 and 1.5 million euros, an amount that, according to sources, was rejected by the heirs. The latest municipal offers, aimed at leaving some budgetary leeway to later renovate the villa and transform it into a cultural and tourist center, have increased and are now around 1.8 million euros. It remains to be seen whether the sale will go through or if the City Council will ultimately abandon the idea, focus the investment elsewhere, or if, finally, it will have to return the 2 million euros in Next Generation EU funding.