Zaragoza City Council has definitively approved a modification to the city’s General Urban Development Plan for the former Convento de Jerusalén, beside La Romareda stadium. The agreement allows Grupo Bancalé to develop up to 220 homes, two residences and commercial uses. It also fixes the developer’s compensation to the council at €22.4 million, although a municipal technical report previously said the original €22 million proposal lacked a valuation to justify it. The agreement has attracted scrutiny because the final buildable area exceeds the level recognised by a May 2026 ruling of the High Court of Justice of Aragon.
A planning agreement, not a conventional tender
The mechanism at stake is an urban planning agreement, or convenio urbanístico, linked to a modification of Zaragoza’s General Urban Development Plan. It allows a council and a landowner to formalise changes to planning rights and associated contributions, subject to political approval and public information. It is not a conventional procurement competition in which suppliers submit bids for a public contract. Here, Enta Properties, the Grupo Bancalé company that owns the site, submitted the request in December 2025, and the file then went through the Urban Planning Management Council, the Urban Planning Commission and public consultation. Three objections were submitted by individual residents before final approval.
More buildable area for a modestly higher payment
The definitive agreement provides 17,120 square metres of floor area for tertiary uses and 25,255 square metres for residential use, a combined 42,375 square metres. The initial proposal covered 39,445 square metres. The developer therefore receives almost 3,000 additional square metres while increasing the council’s compensation by €400,000. The payment began as a €22 million figure proposed by the developer in December 2025. A report by the chief architect of the Technical Planning Service said that proposal was not accompanied by a technical valuation justifying the amount. Ten months later, the same figure, increased by 1.8%, became the final amount in the agreement.
The court ruling remains central to the dispute
The High Court of Justice of Aragon ruled in May that the tertiary development consolidated by the agreement exceeded by almost 5,000 square metres the level it considered correct under the existing planning rules. The 17,120 square metres also exceeds the 15,595 square metres initially requested by the developer. The judgment further held that 1,135 square metres needed for a new road between paseo de Isabel la Católica and calle de Álvaro de Bazán had to be transferred free of charge and without compensation. The final agreement records that free transfer. The council has not referred to the judgment in its public communications about the project since May, according to the source article.
Conditions added before final approval
The final agreement adds a requirement for 20% more private parking spaces than the legal minimum, a condition demanded by Vox in order to support the project. The urban planning councillor, Víctor Serrano, said this represented approximately 100 additional spaces. Between 68 and 70 of the 220 homes must be kept for rental for at least ten years. Serrano described the development as urban regeneration and said the road transfer would make the formerly enclosed site more permeable. The measure was approved with support from PP, Vox and an unaffiliated councillor, while PSOE and Zaragoza en Común opposed it. The council has said that its technicians assessed the overall amount and reached the stated compensation.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Development | Up to 220 homes and two residences |
| Final buildable area | 42,375 square metres |
| Initial buildable area | 39,445 square metres |
| Council compensation | €22 million plus €400,000 |
| Tertiary floor area | 17,120 square metres |
| Road land transfer | 1,135 square metres, free of charge |
| Rental homes | Between 68 and 70, for at least ten years |
The definitive agreement gives the developer almost 3,000 additional square metres of buildable area for €400,000 more compensation.
WHY IT MATTERS
Urban planning agreements can alter the value and permitted use of private land without following the competitive process associated with a procurement tender. Their public-interest case therefore depends on a clear planning rationale, a defensible valuation of the public return and disclosure of relevant legal and technical findings. In Zaragoza, the agreement’s final figures and the court ruling provide a test of how those points are explained when additional development rights are consolidated.
Reported from eldiario.es, 2026-10-19. The Tender Wire is published by Otnox.
