Ticino: New tourism project in Acquarossa
The municipality of Acquarossa in the Blenio Valley in Ticino, a well-known thermal spa resort until the closure of the historic Thermenhotel in the early 1970s, is to become a year-round vacation destination once again. The first step is the construction of the "Sun Village Acqurossa" as a "village within a village".
As part of the "Sun Village Acquarossa" project, a hotel complex with wellness facilities as well as apartments, restaurants and stores are to be built in the municipality named after its red thermal waters. The plans include a 69-room hotel with a wellness center and an indoor pool open to the public, as well as a number of apartments yet to be precisely defined, probably between 100 and 150 units of various sizes. The developer is Sun Village Projects SA (Svp SA); according to local media reports, the investment volume amounts to CHF 60 million. The project is to be built on a plot of land in the Comprovasco district, which is owned by the municipality's Centro turistico Acquarossa SA.
As Corriere del Ticino reported at the time, the municipality of Acquarossa granted planning permission for Sun Village Projects SA's final planning application for the construction of the vacation village in May 2022; no objections were raised against the planning application. However, the start of construction announced for the end of 2023 has been postponed - because the project promoters have been "confronted with exogenous difficulties (pandemic and war in Ukraine) in recent years, which have delayed all economic activities", according to the municipality. The Acquarossa municipal council therefore decided by majority vote on December 17, 2024 to extend the deadline for exercising the right to purchase the entire share capital of Centro Touristico SA: the investors now have a further year (until December 31, 2025) to pay the required CHF 2.6 million; the buyers have already paid a deposit of 20 percent of the purchase price (CHF 520,000).
"We assume that the takeover of the share package by Svp Sa can take place in the next few months," Mayor Michela Gardenghi told the newspaper "laRegione". She assumes that the target of starting work by the end of 2026 should be met without any particular problems - although the renewal of the now expired building permit is still pending. "The agreement in principle between Svp Sa and a Swiss real estate fund specializing in the construction and management of Alpine villages also gives cause for optimism," writes "laRegione". The project sponsors are in the process of finalizing both the planning and the financing of the hotel, the adjacent spa, the public swimming pool and the parking spaces. If everything goes according to plan, the hotel complex should open in 2028. (bw)
