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Flats in Ericeira Will Be Managed as a Luxury Hotel
26 May 2018
The €10-million investment, managed by Amazing, will open in July at average prices of €450 per night.
Amazing Evolution’s current focus is giving new life to projects after they enter bankruptcy. The company founded by Margarida Almeida, who started by specialising in the management of insolvent assets by increasing their profitability, is increasingly moving to the operation of new or existing assets at the request of their owners.
Amazing’s latest acquisition is a recently completed project in Ericeira near the south beach, which includes 35 flats, which range from studios to four-bedroom apartments, with a total of 174 beds. Designated by You & The Sea, the project involved investments of €10 million by the family that owns the five-star 1908 Lisbon hotel, which opened in 2017 in the Intendente area (in a building that won the Valmor Prize in 1908). The hotel is also managed by Amazing.
The new flats in Ericeira will have luxury services comparable to those of a five-star hotel. Involving 32 jobs, the You & The Sea project will open in July, with average prices of €155/night for a studio, and €450 for the larger four-bedroom apartments. The project aims “to respond to a specific need in the region,” targeting upper-middle-class groups and families.
“As managers, we looked at this project from the perspective of bringing other types of tourists to the region of Ericeira, and when the owners contacted us, we saw it as a great opportunity,” Margarida Almeida, the head of Amazing Evolution stated. Ms Almeida added that beyond the Vila Galé hotel, “there are no high-quality hotels in Ericeira… though it is an internationally-known area which gained fame when it was recognised as the first world surfing reserve in Europe and the second in the world.”
Appreciating Ericeira As A Destination “That Is Not Just a Beach”
In Ericeira, Amazing’s has committed to increasing the operation’s profitability by offering a series of activities, ranging from handicrafts to wine production, besides unforgettable surfing, aimed at discovering the region and “demonstrating that Ericeira is not just a beach destination.”
Emphasising that the upper classes increasingly value experiences, which had yet to be explored in Ericeira, Ms Almeida stated that “there is a series of experiences that we can give to clients that demonstrate the best that the region has to offer. These include things like the José Franco village, where we are going to make pottery workshops, and the Mafra convent which inspired our Nobel Laureate (José Saramago – Literature). Her vision as an executive is “not to focus solely on infrastructure, but on the activities that the region has to offer, and we want to implement an innovative concept in the form of hotel management.”
The You & The Sea apartments in Ericeira also have a swimming pool, and a restaurant focused on the local gastronomy, which will be called “Jangada.” According to the head of Amazing, “in our new signature projects, we make a point of installing a restaurant that anchors the space, and is not just an accessory.”
With the project You & The Sea will open in July in Ericeira, Amazing Evolution will 12 tourist assets in operation have under management, not counting three new projects that are in the licensing phase or already in construction. The company’s portfolio includes Conrad in the Algarve, 1908 Lisbon Hotel, Aldeia dos Capuchos, Costa da Caparica, Golf Mar, Vimeiro, Paul do Mar, Madeira, among many others.
Projects Profitability Increased by 10% in 2017
“At this moment, our portfolio already includes more private investments than insolvent or recovering projects,” says Margarida Almeida, who founded Amazing Evolution in late 2012 with the express purpose of saving tourist assets from insolvency at the height of the financial crisis in Portugal. She also went through insolvency proceedings (Imocom), and eventually specialised in a hitherto unknown activity in the market: rescuing projects in difficulty from bankruptcy, putting them back into operation and generating positive results, working directly with banks, financial funds and insolvency administrators.
The assets currently under management by Amazing, totalling 1,400 rooms, generated a total turnover of €21.3 million in 2017, and according to Margarida Almeida, last year “the increase in profitability of these investments was between 8% and 10%.”
There are also examples of projects that were insolvent and “were restored to health by Amazing” and have since been sold. “We turn bad projects into good projects. In these five years, we have already delivered a series of projects that were insolvent and came into our hands, and we created the conditions so that they could be sold.” This was the case of the Czar hotel on the Avenida Almirante Reis in Lisbon, the Clube Praia Mar in Portimão (both of which are managed by Amazing despite having new owners), along with Monte Santo in Carvoeiro and Porta Nova in Tavira.
According to the executive, the largest part of the demand is not coming from private investors with new projects, not insolvencies. “We are talking about private investors who do not have any experience in hotel management, but who want to have their own hotel which is likely to generate a profit since they worked hard to make the money they are investing,” she added.
Original Story: Jornal Expresso – Conceição Antunes
Photo: D.R.
Translation: Richard Turner