MARBELLA is set to get a new €500 million luxury beachfront hotel and residential complex run by Marriott International.
Hong Kong-based property investment group Platinum Estates and developer Sierra Blanca Estates unveiled the St Regis Las Dunas project on Tuesday.
The complex, planned for Las Chapas, east of Marbella, will have a 169-room hotel and 151 luxury residences.
The residences will range from two to five bedrooms and from 150 to 1,000 square metres.
“Las Dunas has been part of our vision for Marbella since day one,” said Platinum Estates founder Harry Mohinani.
“It is an asset that is impossible to replicate in Marbella.”
It will include several restaurants, a wellness area, sports facilities, swimming pools and a beach club, all open to both hotel guests and residence owners.
The site covers more than 160,000 square metres and has over 350 metres of seafront.
The design will follow the natural slope of the land, with gardens and open spaces to help it blend into the landscape.
Despite this, there is opposition from local conservationist groups.
The scheme has grown considerably since the Olive Press first reported on it in December 2024.
Environmental group Ecologistas Malaka warned that building there would severely damage an important ecosystem.
Spokesman, Javier de Luis, said around 90% of the coast between Cabopino and central Marbella was already built on, and that “it’s a miracle it has survived this long”.
The developers countered that the land had been classed as buildable for many years, and that the dunes had never been properly protected and had become something of a dumping ground.
Platinum Estates said it intended to respect the dunes, and to regenerate and clean them up.
The project took more than eight years to win approval, after a series of changes requested by the Junta.
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