Gran Scala

A huge swath of land that stretches beyond the horizon of low-lying hills is being bought up by a British company which plans to transform the scrub and dusty arable land into Gran Scala, a cross between Las Vegas and Orlando in Spain.

Last night representatives of International Leisure Development, ILD, were telling Otiñena villagers of its scheme to turn the area into one of the world’s biggest gambling centres, rivalling Las Vegas with 32 casino-hotels .

The Gran Scala project will cover 11 sq miles

…creating a city the size of Bath with 18 theme parks, 70,000 hotel rooms, 65,000 workers, and 15 million visitors a year.

While local politicians back a project to create the region’s second largest city out of nothing, campaigners claim it will bring moral and environmental ruin to this placid district. “They want us to teach values to our schoolchildren but now our politicians are offering gambling, empty-headed leisure and rampant consumerism,” complained Rosa Arqué, one of a group of local teachers who say the casinos will bring crime and prostitution.

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Most of the 600 people in sleepy Ontiñena, however, seem delighted. Big city lawyers have arrived, exchanging contracts for plots of land at up to 30 times market value. “All you can do there is sow cereal crops and pray for rain,” said mayor Ángel Torres “Now people see a future for their children and grandchildren.”

A coil of lights spelling out the words “Gran Scala” illuminates the door of the Aragonia Taberna bar. “This place is depressing. People are old and dying off,” said the owner, Fran Rodríguez.

It needs new blood.

People are rubbing their eyes in amazement at their luck. Some offer scribbled agreements written decades ago on paper napkins as proof of land ownership. “I’m selling because I’m old and nobody will ever offer me this much again,” said 80-year-old Luis Ostal, as he and his friends slammed playing cards on a taberna table. Some, however, are already mourning the loss of rural peace. “I came here for a life of quiet relaxation,” said retired bus driver Mariano Aranda. “I feel cheated.”

Villagers who do not want to sell are lying low, overwhelmed by social pressure and exasperated by local politicians who have pledged to expropriate their land and hand it to ILD. “We have documents showing that some of our lands have been in the family since 1880,” said one opponent, who did not want to be named, at the remote farmhouse surrounded by rosemary-scented scrubland where his family spends weekends. “We will be losing a way of life.”

By 2012, if the developers’ plans work out, the San Gregorio hermitage will overlook a sea of theme parks, hotels, casinos and leisure complexes hosting visitors from as far away as China and India. “Most visitors should come from Europe,” said Jaime Riera, of ILD, who describes Gran Scala as a leisure and entertainment centre. “It will be easy for people to get here for a weekend.”

Politicians are laying out the red carpet and promising jobs for recession-hit local people. They have pledged to scrap the Aragon region’s gambling law, which allows just one casino a province. A made-to-measure law allowing 32 casino-hotels within a few square miles is due by the summer.

There is talk, too, of public money to create electricity and water supplies as well as a link road to a nearby motorway and a station on a nearby high-speed rail line from Madrid to Barcelona.

Mayor Torres said campaigners against the scheme were not welcome in his office. “Whoever is against can push off,” he said, peering at a request from a church charity for a meeting. “I won’t see them.”

Riera, who invited critics to contact him, said: “We know a project like this is going to create controversy. Gran Scala is going to be totally committed to the environment and sustainability. It will become a model.” Fifteen companies, mostly involved in the gambling sector, have formed ILD, which is registered in London but coordinates the interests of shareholders from Australia to France. The company talks of a total €17bn investment and 200,000 direct and indirect jobs by a planned full completion date of 2022.

“It is a straightforward business proposal,” said Riera, who admits the global financial crisis has forced ILD to rein back short-term projections.

He still hopes work will start on what would become Spain’s biggest building site later this year, with a first phase opening in 2012. “The risks are high, the path is long and there will be problems to overcome along the way,” he said.

An elderly priest, walking across Ontiñena’s town square as a pair of storks chattered loudly from a nearby tower, saw the project in a different light. “It is an insult to poverty,” he pronounced.

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