Meliá is planting five hotels across the province, ME Málaga adds a fifth five-star to the old town, and David Chipperfield's 144-metre port tower — backed by Qatar's Al Alfia — heads for cabinet approval. The Costa del Sol is trading up.
The 2025–2028 wave is concentrated luxury: Meliá alone accounts for five provincial openings, and the Chipperfield tower would be Spain's most ambitious single hotel project. Entries below are operator- or authority-confirmed.
Meliá's lifestyle flag lands beside Plaza de la Merced, steps from the Alcazaba, the Roman Theatre and the Picasso Museum: 105 rooms, rooftop infinity pool over the old town, ME+ service and a convention floor — Málaga's fifth five-star and the clearest sign the city centre, not just the coast, is now a luxury market.
The former Kempinski in Estepona re-emerges after a full refurbishment as a 134-room Meliá Collection luxury hotel — part of a five-opening provincial push CEO Gabriel Escarrer framed as a bet on quality over volume.
A 27-key boutique carved from Ronda's former Madre de Dios convent — the Collection brand extending the luxury map inland to the gorge city, an hour from the coast.
Marbella's landmark closes for a €45-million reinvention: key count trimmed 194 → 187 as suites multiply — a bet that RevPAR, not volume, is the coast's future.
The 144-metre, 35-storey tower at the end of the Levante quay, redesigned by Pritzker laureate David Chipperfield: 350–390 suite-style rooms, a rooftop garden terrace, a 2,000-guest convention centre and a public realm overhaul of the quay. Approved by the port authority in late 2025; now with Puertos del Estado and, ultimately, the cabinet.
Málaga's pipeline is the Costa del Sol's answer to its own success: with ADR up 9% to €125.5 and RevPAR rising 14.8% — triple the Andalusian average — the market can finally carry five-star supply, and operators know it. Meliá's five-hotel regional bet and Qatar's port tower are the same trade at different scales: convert sun-and-beach demand into year-round, culture-and-convention demand. For the traveller: opening cadence is your friend — ME Málaga's first seasons will price below the Miramar's established rates, and the old town now offers five-star beds walking distance from the Picasso. For the watcher: the tower is the tell — if a 144-metre Grand Luxury with a 2,000-seat convention centre wins cabinet approval, Málaga officially graduates from resort gateway to convention city. Watch Puertos del Estado.
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