Peter Lim wants to sign the urban planning agreement for the completion of Valencia CF's new Mestalla stadium, but making the financial requirements and the work schedule more flexible. This is one of the basic ideas that has been transferred to the new municipal government team, headed by the popular María José Catalá, to the sports limited company (SAD) controlled by Meriton, the Singapore businessman's company.. The Councilor for Large Projects, José Marí Olano, has maintained contacts with the secretary of the club's board of directors, Germán Cabrera, a lawyer from the King & Wood Mallesons law firm, in which he has raised the possibility of replacing the requirement to present guarantees banks for the amount of construction of the new coliseum for letters of intent from possible investors interested in participating in the urban operation.

Furthermore, Peter Lim wants to introduce into the agreement an open schedule for the execution of the works, so that he does not have to undertake the completion of the entire project of almost 70,000 seats at once (66,000 fixed chairs, expandable by another 4,000), but rather align it with the achievement of other milestones of the urban planning agreement. The plan contemplates the payment by Valencia CF of 10 million euros to complete the Poliderpotivo del Barrio de Benicalap, the completion of the works on the skeleton of the Cortes Valencianas avenue and the demolition of the old stadium, on whose plot the Planning includes the construction of four residential towers and a shopping center.

Meriton estimates costs of between 140 and 160 million euros for the completion of the stadium, blocked since 2008. It has 80 million from the CVC agreement with the League to finance infrastructure and has agreed with Atitlan to sell the tertiary plot of 40,000 square meters for hotel and commercial use attached to the new coliseum. The income for the SAD from this operation has not been disclosed, but is estimated at between 35 and 40 million euros.. Lim needs to obtain around 40 million in additional financing, which he could negotiate with financial entities such as CaixaBank, with which he already has a mortgage for the old Mestalla..

Until now, the draft of the urban development agreement with which the City Council was working proposed that, upon signing the agreement, Valencia would disburse the 10 million for the Benicalap Sports Center and guarantees that would financially guarantee compliance with the objectives of the agreement with the City Council.. This is the usual tone in this type of pact.. Meriton wants to relax this requirement, offering as an alternative the presentation of comfort letters or commitments of financial intentions [a type of document that does not offer the same guarantees as bank guarantees, the cost of which Lim would save, and are not enforceable] while achieving unblock the administrative and legal obstacle to finish (without clear deadlines) the new stadium and be able to free the old one. With this you could put your plots for sale to real estate investors.

There is a certain consensus that, with the urban planning operation resolved on paper, it would be easier for the Asian businessman to find investors for the old Mestalla plots, and, perhaps, also for the sports society chaired by its representative Layhoon Chan. Although nothing would prevent Lim from doing business with the plots without giving up the club..

Marí has conveyed the information about the wishes for “flexibility” of the agreement to the three political groups that make up the municipal corporation of the city of Valencia, who have received Lim's will with skepticism.. The fact of wanting to avoid the presentation of bank guarantees is interpreted as an absence of real commitment to the completion of the project, as is the request to complete the new field in phases.. The intention of Mayor María José Catalá, who has not yet established a position of her political group (the Popular Party), is to seek a consensus among the members of the corporation to negotiate the conditions of the agreement before approving it because she understands that it is of a city matter, very sensitive among the Valencian fans, completely socially opposed to the owner of Valencia CF.

The groups of the previous local government of Rialto, Compromís and PSOE, told Marí in the meetings that their position is to demand that Meriton and Valencia CF comply with all the requirements that guarantee the economic viability of the operation of the new Mestalla and the demands of capacity that were proposed when the first agreement was signed for the modification of the planning, with the reclassification of plots and the exchanges that would allow the replacement of one stadium for the other.

Vox, through its municipal spokesperson, Juanma Badenas, has shown its refusal to reach any type of agreement with Peter Lim. The ultra-conservative formation has adopted the position defended by Marea Valencianista, led by consultant Miguel Zorío, which wants the City Council to change the urban development agent so that third-party developers take on the work.