Residents of Southern Alicante Grow Tired of Waiting for Benalúa's Flour Mills

Benalúa's flour mills, poised to become a cultural hub for the city's south, remain frozen in time alongside Elche Avenue. A limbo that the neighbourhood associations of Parque del Mar, Benalúa, and the Federation of Neighbourhood Associations of Southern Alicante wish to break. These groups have called for a protest this Friday, 7th November, at 6:00 PM. They will demand the restoration of the complex and the enhancement of the municipal building of Harinas Cloquell as a cultural and social facility.

The event will take place on Quintiliano Street, behind the Flour Mills, and will include the reading of a manifesto and the presentation of neighbourhood proposals to reuse the buildings "in a way that is compatible with the needs of the neighbourhood and the city," they stated in a release.

"The Flour Mills are part of the living memory of Benalúa and all of Alicante. We cannot allow this heritage to be lost while the city needs cultural and social spaces," emphasises the president of the Parque del Mar Neighbourhood Association, Lorenzo Pérez.

The Benalúa Flour Mills—including Harinas Cloquell and Harinas Bufort—are part of Alicante's industrial heritage. Recently, the Bufort building was added to the Docomomo Ibérico Foundation's Catalogue of Modern Architecture, a recognition that strengthens its historical and architectural interest.

Residents report the progressive deterioration of the buildings and fear that municipal indecision will hinder their recovery. "We have been waiting for years for the final approval of the surrounding area's urbanisation project. If no action is taken, we risk losing another iconic space in the neighbourhood," they lament.

During the election campaign, Mayor Luis Barcala promised to transform the Flour Mills into the 'City of Music', integrating the Music and Dance conservatories. However, once the elections were over, the project was abandoned "due to insufficient space."

Later, the mayor assured that the future endowment use of the building will be defined with Alicante's new General Plan, which for residents means "a way to postpone decisions." "It's the classic kick down the road. They buy time without offering real solutions," criticises Pérez.

The Parque del Mar Neighbourhood Association has repeatedly proposed large-scale cultural projects for the Flour Mills. Among them, the Mudiga (Digital Museum of Alicante), which integrated various spaces on the transition from the analogue to the digital era, digital art, and a virtual window to international museums. They also later presented an ethnological museum of Alicante, equally ignored by the City Council.

"Alicante needs transformative projects, not empty announcements. In the south, we especially suffer from a lack of ambition and municipal action," denounces Pérez.

Among the projects that southern neighbourhoods are still waiting for are the renovation of Casa Mediterráneo, the decommissioning of ADIF land in Benalúa, or the expansion of Parque del Mar, all of which are "repeated in speeches but eternally pending."

With this protest, the neighbourhood associations aim to prevent the Flour Mills from meeting the same fate as the Ideal Cinema, which they consider "a symbol of heritage neglect."

The gathering will feature cultural and citizen groups committed to heritage defence, who will join their voices to demand immediate rehabilitation and public and cultural use for Harinas Cloquell. "We don't want more abandoned buildings or broken promises. We want a future for our heritage and our neighbourhoods," concludes Pérez.