No. 47 of 84 in the list
Sunset Drive
Sunset Drive is a pair of 92-metre towers in La Cala, directly opposite Intempo. With them, in 2016, began the series of TM towers that has shaped Poniente ever since.
The story
When Sunset Drive rose out of the ground in 2016, it was the only residential project under construction in the whole of Benidorm. A few metres away, Intempo had stood idle for months. TM Grupo Inmobiliario from Torrevieja had shortly before started Ocean Drive on the Poniente beach promenade, a six-storey building with 24 apartments. Sunset Drive was the second step and the company’s first big bet on Poniente.
Sales were quick. By October 2016 around 60 per cent of the 260 apartments had been sold, and 90 per cent already in the first tower. Two-bedroom apartments cost from €255,000, duplex apartments with four bedrooms up to €766,000. In January 2017 TM opened two show apartments; Mayor Toni Pérez came, as did representatives of Elche CF, then TM’s sponsorship partner. 55 per cent of the buyers were Spanish, the rest came from other European countries.
More than 13,000 square metres to play on
What is special about Sunset Drive is less the towers than the complex between them: more than 13,000 square metres of communal space with three pools, three whirlpools, a bar in the water, a heated sports pool, a gym with Finnish sauna, padel and tennis courts, pétanque – and a curling lane. For children there is a pool in the shape of a lake with water features, a treehouse and slides; for adults, coworking, a reading room and a small cinema. TM later had a car park with 40 spaces approved.
Handover was planned for September 2017 (Tower 1) and spring 2018 (Tower 2). Then followed Sunset Waves, Sunset Cliffs, Eagle Tower, Sunset Sailors and the TM Tower; in 2026 TM counted ten towers in ten years in Benidorm. Sunset Drive has been sold out for years; most recently TM was offering only commercial units.
Good to know
- Two towers, 92 metres and 25 floors each above two basement levels, reinforced concrete (CTBUH).
- Address: Avenida de la Vila Joiosa 12, La Cala, opposite Intempo.
- The Las Rejas golf course is around a kilometre away, the La Marina shopping centre nearby.
- CTBUH lists the towers as ‘Office/Hotel’ in La Nucia – both wrong; it is a residential complex in Benidorm.
Open questions
- Height and floors vary by source: 92 m/25 floors (CTBUH), 86 m to the roof (SkyscraperPage), 96 and 93 m with 23 floors and the year 2020 (Emporis list). One newspaper text from 2016 even speaks of ‘34 pisos’, probably an error.
- The contractor and the reason for the name ‘Sunset Drive’ are not documented.
- Number of apartments: 260 (2016) or 265 (2021).