Lisbon, Dec. 26, 2024 (Lusa) - The Alves Ribeiro Group has won the international tender to build a luxury hotel, tourist flats and shops at the Belém Cultural Centre (CCB) in Lisbon, the authority announced on Thursday.
The Pestana Group and the construction company Alves Ribeiro were the companies whose application had been accepted earlier this year to submit proposals for Modules 4 and 5 of the CCB.
The CCB Foundation and the Alves Ribeiro Group expect the contract between the parties to be signed at the beginning of next year, followed by the start of the project's licensing work, which is scheduled for completion in 2028, according to a CCB press release.
The CCB New Development 2023 project provides for the subconcession of surface rights for the construction and operation of a hotel and retail area for 65 years.
The project was launched in October last year and involves an investment of around 80 million euros.
The aim of the concession for a hotel and commercial space is to finalise the original project by architects Vittorio Gregotti and Manuel Salgado/Atelier Risco, which opened in 1993, and to give the CCB Foundation the possibility of obtaining more of its own financial resources.
The initial architectural project included modules 1, 2 and 3, which house the Congress and Meeting Centre, the Entertainment Centre and the Exhibition Centre - now the CCB Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC/CCB) - as well as modules 4 and 5, which were left unfinished.
The tender for the signing of a Subcession Contract for Surface Rights over Modules 4 and 5 of the CCB was relaunched on 10 October 2023, ‘after the first procedure for this purpose was frustrated, namely due to the pandemic,’ the CCB recalled in a statement.
The jury for the procedure included Jorge Santos, who chaired, Bernardo Alabaça, António Baeta and Pedro Vaz, as well as the directors of the CCB Foundation, António Ribeiro, Francisco Sacadura and João Caré.
According to CCB Foundation administrator Madalena Reis, ‘this is a strategic project, essential to the life of the Foundation, which will provide the city of Lisbon with a new centre, inviting locals and visitors to stay longer in the Belém-Ajuda monumental area’.
With a total area of 20,000 square metres, the two modules will include a hotel with 161 double rooms, an aparthotel with 126 units, and a shopping centre and new services.
The future income from the surface rights of the land ‘will allow the CCB to increase the quality of its cultural offer, while also leveraging its own income’, according to the administration.
‘It is increasingly important for the Belém Cultural Centre Foundation to diversify its sources of income, and this project will make a large contribution to strengthening the institution's financial sustainability, as well as to its mission of creating and disseminating culture,’ adds Madalena Reis.
In the first tender launched in 2018, the CCB Foundation reached the negotiation stage with the construction company Mota Engil, which eventually withdrew due to the constraints caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The criteria for choosing the winner took into account ‘the most economically advantageous proposal’ for the CCB, with the value of the proposed rent having a weight of 65% and the technical quality of the proposal the remaining 35%.
To apply for the project, candidates were required to have a ‘minimum of five consecutive years’ experience in the simultaneous or successive management of at least two hotel establishments with a positioning equal to or greater than ‘upper midscale’ (four stars or higher)’.
The conditions for applicants have been improved compared to the previous tender, namely the concession period, which has increased from 50 to 65 years, extendable to 75 years, and the annual instalments of the surface rights will have a wider and more variable range.
AG/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
