The seaside city of Necochea in Buenos Aires Province is pushing ahead with plans to auction its long-neglected casino complex, proposing a starting price that has ignited political debate over how to value one of the town’s most emblematic — and decayed — landmarks.
The local Executive has sent a draft ordinance to the City Council that would authorize a public auction of the Casino Complex with a base price of ARS 4.878 billion. That figure is based on 75 per cent of a “potential” valuation prepared by Banco Provincia, which assumes future changes in urban zoning that would allow higher-density developments on the oceanfront land.
By contrast, the same bank report warns that under current zoning rules and in its present state of deterioration, the property would be worth around ARS 3.75 billion and would be “difficult or nearly impossible to sell” without major investment.
City officials argue that Necochea can no longer afford to keep the site in limbo. The municipality says it is spending between ARS 10 million and ARS 25 million per month on electricity alone, depending on the season, in addition to staffing costs to guard the abandoned buildings against vandalism. The auction, they contend, is a way to stop the financial bleed and attract private capital for redevelopment.
The proposed ordinance specifies that the Teatro Auditorium will be excluded from this first auction, although it leaves open the possibility of a separate sale or process for that structure in the future.
The project has been reviewed in the Council’s committees on Economic Policy, Infrastructure and Legislation, where officials such as Ernesto Povilaitis and Paula Faramiñán have defended the methodology, auction format and payment terms before councillors.
Opposition councillors and some neighbourhood groups accuse the administration of pushing a “fast-track” sale on the basis of an optimistic, hypothetical valuation tied to zoning changes that have yet to be approved at the provincial level. Others question the lack of a broader public debate about the future of a site that once housed 50 gaming tables, bowling lanes, a disco, skating rink, swimming pools and the iconic “flying saucer” auditorium over the dunes, now a symbol of decline on the Atlantic coast. As Necochea weighs whether to cash out of its historic casino, the auction proposal has become a test case for how Argentine coastal cities manage aging gaming infrastructure in an era of budget stress and shifting tourism patterns.
