Starco centre closed after architect's report finds it in danger of collapse

[Janet]

The Starco centre in Playa de las Américas, a famous focus of nightlife in Tenerife for over 30 years, has been evacuated and closed by Arona Policía Local after an architect's report, commissioned by Kadim Nasser, the main owner of locales in the centre, showed that the lower level structural columns were rusting through and in danger of collapse. The report was immediately handed to Arona Ayuntamiento, with the result some of the 25 or so businesses, mainly bars and discos, in the centre were closed on Thursday night, with the remainder being shut yesterday and the centre being cordoned off. The Ayuntamiento has now requested a complete structural inspection of the basement amid suspicions that the deterioriation in structural columns is even worse there. JA

[Janet]

Arona's concejal de Urbanismo, Carmelo García,  has said that the council is staggered at the way in which Starco centre owners have hindered access for independent technicians to compile a report. Three times they had visited the centre, said Sr García, and have been stopped from doing their work, and so have set up precautionary measures which include limiting the capacity of locales and the provision of services for individual businesses. The councillor said that the centre's owners have behaved irrationally, and made the technicians feel threatened, coerced and  pressured to declare the centre safe. JA

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

I am about to repeat rumour, which I cannot verify in any way:  on another forum someone said the main centre owner has done this before (declared a lack of safety) to try and shake down the other owners for cash.  The poster's opinion of the main owner seemed quite low.

I do not know the man from Adam, nor do I have a clue where the centre is, and I have no axe to grind. 

[Michael]

Is this the place that is a real shithole?

[Janet]

Yes, mac, pretty much, it's opposite the Veronicas ...

I've heard those rumours too, Myrtle, and indeed it was closed a few years ago, though whether as a shakedown I've no idea. This time, apart from the shakedown story, there's the story that it was Aropol in a fit of pique at Spain's loss in the world cup and a closure designed to stop English fans seeing their own game ...

I would have thought that if that were the case, they just needed to leave it open and stand outside and laugh ...

Trouble is that this is Arona. And any of the "he's got the council in his pocket" or "it's a shakedown" rumours will always have the ring of truth about them simply because the whole bloody council is rotten almost to a man, which is why they're all up in court any day now - for the Caso Arona cases as well as the "forming a wall in front of an illegal mayor" case ...

I myself think there are clear structural problems which were behind the closure last time, and that borough engineers were ordered by the council to give dodgy reports to allow it to open ... because of the "council in his pocket" situation. This time, they dare not take a bribe, which is why the tecnicos are having such a hard time from the owners, because the brown envelopes worked before ...

[Janet]

Owners and users of the Starco centre will be on tenterhooks today ahead of the anticipated decision by Arona's Urbanism councillor, Carmelo García Martín, on whether the centre can reopen. The likeliest scenario, as indicated yesterday, is that it will be formally reopened with defined limitations on capacity and usage while works are carried out to the supporting columns in the lower levels. JA