The Board of Directors of the municipal company Pimesa has approved a four-month extension for the completion of works on the Central Market in Elche. The joint venture responsible for the project, formed by Involucra, Gestaser and Alcudia, now has until 26th December to finish the construction, moving the final deadline into the peak of the Christmas campaign.
This deadline extension increases the overall duration of the project from the planned 15 months to 19 months. Formally requested by the contractors on 22nd July, the extension has now been officially granted. While the local executive has not formally released the exact percentage of completed works, unofficial estimates place progress at around 40 per cent. Authorities anticipate that work velocity could increase once local festivities and major structural tasks are concluded.
Financially, the project cost has escalated significantly from its original tender award figure of 8.8 million euro. A previously announced price adjustment had already added more than 3.15 million euro to the total budget, representing a 43.2 per cent increase over the initial tender price.
This initial 3.15 million euro increase comprised three main elements. More than 1.2 million euro was allocated to reinforcing the building structure after pillars and facades were found in a worse condition than originally anticipated. This required constructing a double structure by installing new steel beams next to the originals and restoring the building’s original red trusses. A further one million euro was assigned to construct a separate building required by the Regional Ministry of Culture to turn the Arab Baths into a museum space. Additionally, over 860,000 euro was added to install a climate control system requested by market stallholders. Urban Planning Councillor Francisco Soler previously stated that the cooling system was added later because the current administration chose to reuse the existing procedure initiated by the previous coalition rather than delay execution.
On top of these adjustments, a new budget increase of 711,268.02 euro has now been introduced due to measurement discrepancies reported by the contractor to Pimesa. This latest increase of nearly 10 per cent raises the project cost to 11.1 million euro excluding VAT, bringing the final total to 13.5 million euro when 21 per cent VAT is included.
The budget growth aligns with earlier concerns raised by the local PSOE group in February of last year, when they warned that the winning 22 per cent discount on the original tender was unrealistically low.
Alongside the market building itself, ongoing archaeological excavations in Elche have uncovered remaining sections of the Arab Baths and a subterranean staircase believed to be connected to a Civil War shelter. Meanwhile, three plane trees have been planted in the renovated Menendez Pelayo square opposite the Town Hall, while the reinstallation of a sculpture by Joan Castejon remains pending.
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