After approving the development master plan for the proposed Tourist And Recreation Complex near Barcelona in January, local officials for the Catalonia region of Spain have now granted the companies interested in opening the development’s two casinos another three months to submit their finished designs.

Formerly known as BCN World, work on the massive development due to be located around 60 miles south of the Catalonian capital was set to begin in the summer after the receipt of proposals by March 31 but the extension means that companies now have until June 30 to submit their final designs.

According to a report from G3Newswire, Melco Crown Entertainment Limited is competing with Hard Rock International for one of the Tourist And Recreation Complex’ casino licenses while a second is being coveted by local firm Grupo Peralada in partnership with Malaysian giant Genting Group. The three entities have each already deposited a bond worth approximately $2.7 million and committed to buying land in order to build an assortment of hotels, casinos and shopping areas.

In announcing the extension, the Catalonian government reportedly explained that the added time would allow the potential operators to prepare their proposals in “a timely manner” while fulfilling all legal and financial requirements.

Despite the delay, which was officially announced on Friday, the mayor for the nearby resort town of Salou, Pere Granados, declared that the $2.6 billion project “is still alive” as the extension was requested “by the operators themselves”.

“It must be interpreted that the project is still alive and that the operators’ interest is intact,” Granados told G3Newswire.

Catalonia is already home to four smaller casinos but a recent economic study into the coming Tourist And Recreation Complex conducted by the Universidad Rovila I Virgili De Tarragona found that the huge development could create some 13,000 direct jobs and see up to five million new tourists visiting the area by 2019 contributing an extra $1.2 billion a year into the local economy.