Madrid authorities gave their final red light to two office towers planned in the place of Estadio Vicente Calderón. Atletico’s home stadium will still be torn down, but what will replace it?

On Thursday the city of Madrid confirmed that building two office towers on the site of Estadio Vicente Calderón is not acceptable. The 36-floor structures were problematic from the start, when Atletico and Mahou breweries presented their plan for the site.

Dispute over the planned legacy use of Estadio Vicente Calderón hasn’t ended yet, though the football club has been confirmed to work on an alternative scheme. New plan should be less burdensome and fit the urban fabric much better.

José Manuel Calvo, Madrid’s delegate for sustainable development, confirmed the city is working with both Atletico and Mahou to adjust their plan. Initially, when presented in 2009, the two private partners envisaged two large office towers at the site of Estadio Vicente Calderón and 8 residential blocks (8-20 floors) to replace the brewery.

Since then the brewery has been demolished, but lack of progress resulted in its site being gradually reclaimed by nature. Unending deadlock also influenced the construction of Estadio la Peineta, which had its opening dates postponed a couple time now.

It was hoped the project would be ready for the start of 2016/17 La Liga campaign, but that date is impossible to meet. With two months left, the stadium still needs a lot of work on its primary concrete structure, not even mentioning installations, furnishings or the entire roof.

Back in November it was estimated that the stands will be complete in January, while they’re not delivered to this day. No new deadline has been set as of today, though it’s been clear for some time now that end of 2016 or early into 2017 is a realistic estimate.