When Primark was first mentioned in Seville, there were only a dozen stores open in Spain. The first was inaugurated in Madrid and then another one followed in Murcia; and in 2007 the one in Jerez opened, the third in the national territory along with another in Madrid. In 2009 he opened another store in Algeciras.
After this landing in Andalusia, the rumors, because there was nothing concrete, began a decade ago, during the last government of the PSOE and IU, pointing to the “next” installation of the Irish firm in Seville. In fact, Primark would have been interested in the possibility of settling in the old Police headquarters in Plaza de la Gavidia. Alfredo Sanchez Monteseirin, in his last term in office, made attempts to unblock the future of this property which, to this day, remains uncertain.
The first location that was considered, in the last term of Monteseirin, was the Gavidia and the last, before the Torre Sevilla, Los Arcos
It turned out to be a failure, but the idea was not abandoned, since Primark’s interest in settling in the capital of Andalusia was real. The impulse of this idea was cheered even by the citizenship with the creation of pages in social networks, like “We want a Primark in Seville” in Facebook. All this coincided with the arrival in the local government of Juan Ignacio Zoido and his policy of opening up to investors as a strategy to overcome the crisis of recent years.
But the truth is that few arrived in those years. Meanwhile, the first store in Malaga was opened in the autumn of 2011, on Calle Larios. And Seville continued to aspire while the phenomenon of low cost clothing grew and grew and the new openings followed one another with hardly any interval: in the spring of 2012 Primark opened in Cordoba; in autumn 2013 it was in Fuengirola, Huelva and Roquetas de Mar.
But six and a half years ago everything seemed to be pending a mere process. The Municipal Planning Office had even granted the Batex company, based in Switzerland and an intermediary for Primark, the license to reform the Banco de Andalucia building on Avenida de la Constitucion. The project was valued at more than two million euros and would allow the firm to burst into the center, a proposal similar to the one carried out in the old Prisa building on Madrid’s Gran Via. Today the building on Avenida, owned by Banco Popular, already has another use planned: a luxury hostel.
Negotiations began to open the store on Avenida, in the building owned by Banco Popular, a project that would have been similar to that of Gran Via in Madrid
After these two failed attempts, it was ruled out that Primark would settle in the center of Seville and speculation took another course: it would be in a shopping center. There was talk of Plaza de Armas, just when the center began to be renovated and the first stone was laid for the new Mercadona supermarket in Torneo, a project that left the basements of the aforementioned center free. Apparently, the company had the intention of touching the building and the protection that weighs on it would be a significant obstacle. And also pointed to Los Arcos.
In 2014, the then mayor, Juan Ignacio Zoido, even said that the arrival of Primark in Seville was “imminent”. But it was not until just a year ago that it emerged that the Irish multinational had finally chosen the Torre Sevilla shopping center to open its first store. Seville and Jaen were the only provinces outside the Primark map, which has more than 40 stores in Spain and will open another one in Almeria this year and, soon, will continue to expand along the Costa del Sol.
