Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida has halted a Defense Ministry tower project of 18 floors in El Viso after 88 neighbor complaints. He urged the ministry to talk with residents to reduce impacts. PSOE's Antonio Giraldo criticized it as discriminatory, comparing to Ermita del Santo.
Madrid City Hall has stopped the Defense Ministry's plan for an 18-floor tower about 60 meters tall in the El Viso neighborhood, intended for civil servant offices. Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida said the move addresses neighbor discontent shown in 88 complaints, citing the building's density and height in a built-up area, plus requested parking spaces that would harm local mobility. On Friday from Madrid Calle 30, he urged Defense to sit down with residents to explain the project and lessen effects: “it is obvious that a tower of those characteristics, with that density, with that height, in the middle of such a consolidated environment, that the neighbors have shown their discomfort and complaints” and “we tell the Ministry of Defense that they must sit down to talk with the neighbors,” Almeida emphasized. Socialist councilor Antonio Giraldo voiced disbelief in a social media video: “I swear I'm hallucinating with this news.” He compared it to Ermita del Santo, where City Hall allowed increased density for a private developer despite over 1,000 rejected neighbor complaints, unlike El Viso with no such increase and a public project. “In this case, since they are El Viso neighbors, they seem to matter more than those from another part of the city,” Giraldo lamented, advocating orderly high-rise growth.
