New Commercial Plaza Planned for Cancún’s Playa Tortugas Site

Cancún, Mexico — A new mixed-use commercial plaza is being proposed for Playa Tortugas in Cancún’s hotel zone, on the site that once housed the iconic Fat Tuesday bar and entertainment center. The project requires federal permits, including an environmental impact assessment submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat).

The application process has begun for the construction and operation of a new low-scale, mixed-use tourist-commercial plaza focused on providing recreational, gastronomic, and light commerce services. The property is located at Playa Tortugas, kilometer 6.5 of Cancún’s hotel zone.

Between the 1990s and 2005, the site was home to Fat Tuesday, a bar and entertainment center linked to international tourism, particularly the spring break youth segment. This establishment was part of an international bar chain and represented an iconic point of Cancún’s tourist leisure scene.

After a hurricane and the site’s abandonment, Fat Tuesday was demolished in 2017. Following two previous attempts to build new structures on this land, a new commercial plaza is now proposed with covered and uncovered areas, integrating commercial spaces, service areas, gathering spaces, and outdoor recreation areas in harmony with existing urban infrastructure.

“The property is located in a completely consolidated environment, with service coverage and road connectivity, within an area designated for tourism and commercial use, as defined by current urban and ecological planning instruments,” describes the Environmental Impact Assessment. In addition to the environmental permit, the developer requires a change in land use.

The association Defendiendo el Derecho a un Ambiente Sano (DMAS) has announced on social media that the Benito Juárez municipality assigned tourist service land uses to the Playa Tortugas properties, despite the fact that the National Fund for Tourism Development (Fonatur) delivered these same properties to be part of the public beach, meaning “for the use and enjoyment of Cancún residents, without concessions in favor of third parties.”

The development of a new Urban Development Plan to be worked on in 2026 will have this type of issue under the scrutiny of environmental associations, as these matters are of interest to all Cancún residents.