THE recently destroyed Hotel Ibis in central Malaga was waiting on planning permission to add a further three floors and be upgraded to a three or four-star establishment.
Plans to extend the hotel from last year have resurfaced after a four-day fire gutted the building, leaving it at risk of collapse.
In September 2025, Malaga City Council approved the addition of 19 suites to the existing 189 rooms, with the hotel expected to continue operating as normal while construction work got underway.
At the time of the fire, the proposed expansion was still subject to an environmental assessment by the Ministry of Sustainability, a process that can take several years.
Developers proposed two expansion plans: the first allowing a 15% increase in built area, and the second raising the expansion to 20%, which would enable the two-star hotel to upgrade to three or four stars.
Malaga city council said the extension aimed to increase the number of hotel beds in the city centre and make the city’s tourism sector ‘more competitive and sustainable.’
READ MORE: Malaga Hotel Fire Reignites for Third Time as Crews Battle 40-Hour Inferno
However, those plans now hang in the balance after a fire that re-ignited twice after being extinguished gutted the building.
More than 100 guests were evacuated from the hotel in the early hours of Monday after flames broke out in one of its restaurants, Le Grand Cafe, at around 1.30am.
The fire spread rapidly through the building’s four floors, with its intensity attributed to wooden interiors and insulation materials within the structure.
Firefighters are still working to bring the blaze fully under control after it reignited three times and has now been burning for more than 80 hours.
According to city councillor Avelino Barrionuevo, the fire was particularly ‘complicated’ due to the building’s wooden flooring, which significantly hindered efforts to contain it.
The first floor has suffered a partial collapse, creating a risk of debris falling onto the street.
The findings were confirmed on Wednesday by technicians from Malaga City Council’s Urban Planning Department (GMU) following an initial inspection carried out alongside firefighters, who marked out areas deemed safe to access.
Inspectors were only able to access the first floor during the initial assessment, as other parts of the building remained unsafe.
The City Council expects further technical inspections to be carried out as firefighting operations and debris removal continue, allowing safe access to the upper floors.
According to Pedro Pacheco, a firefighter with the Malaga Fire Department and spokesperson for the Andalusian Firefighters Union (SAB), the fire has continued to reignite because ‘it remains smouldering in hidden areas’.
He added that ‘the entire facade would have to be demolished’ to fully extinguish the fire.
On Tuesday, Malaga mayor Francisco de la Torre said there ‘did not appear to be a risk of the building collapsing following the fire.
However, he added that once the building is fully accessible, a detailed assessment will be carried out to determine whether the building will collapse.
The building remains under close monitoring as structural assessments and investigations into the cause of the fire continue, with the hotel’s future and proposed extension now hanging in the balance.
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