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Almada wants Ginjal Pier and Margueira to Change the Face of the City
16 February 2018
The developer and the municipality hope to start construction in 2018. The project will provide for 330 residences, a hotel, the rehabilitation of the old warehouse and an extension of the docks. A group of private citizens is seeking clarifications in the public consultation that is nearing its conclusion.
The construction of the real estate project that will rehabilitate the old Cais do Ginjal in Almada is expected to start in 2018, the developer and representatives of the municipality of Almada stated during the inauguration of an exhibition based on the project, which is displayed at the Romeu Correia Municipal Forum.
The mayor, Inês de Medeiros, and the director of the Madeiran group AFA, Teixeira Sousa, publicly expressed their willingness to start construction by the end of the year. “It has to be this year. By the end of the year we have to have equipment on site,” Teixeira de Sousa said. The executive later told Público that the works would begin with the implantation of infrastructure for the urbanisation. In addition to the architectural detail plan, an urbanisation plan must be completed before construction begins.
The executive said that in the last 12 years, the AFA group had repeatedly thought of giving up on the project, “such were the difficulties.” He guaranteed that the company is now “committed to carrying out the process to the end” and that intends to start work on the ground “as soon as possible.”
Inês de Medeiros also assured that the municipality and the company will be “quick to resolve” any problems which are still pending. This includes, the mayor told Público, the return of the land where the community centre is installed.
The project for the Cais do Ginjal, designed by the architect Samuel Torres de Carvalho, provides for the construction of 330 dwellings, a hotel on the site of the old cod liver oil factory, and a car parking facility with a capacity for 500 vehicles that will permit the connection between the high and low areas of Ginjal by car.
The nearly 1,000-meter riverfront will be elevated, forestalling a possible rise in the level of the Tagus River, and enlarged, making the docks an area for public use. Towards the rear, between the pier and the cliff, there will be an internal road with 15,000 square meters of construction for commercial buildings and services.
The Almada Expo
Both the mayor and the real estate developer stated that the new Ginjal would change the face of the city, especially for those who view it from Lisbon.
Mr de Sousa says that the AFA Group has “the intention of making the abandoned Ginjal territory into an icon of the South Bank”, an investment that, he told the Público, will be in the “many millions.” The executive did not specify the amounts involved because the urbanisation plan was as yet unfinished.
Mayor Medeiros stressed that Ginjal is the “gateway to Almada” and the place “where the people of Almada have the best direct access to the river.” The mayor compares the two large real estate projects of Almada – the Ginjal and the Margueira – to the Expo 98 in the eastern zone of Lisbon.
According to Inês de Medeiros, the future Water City, which is being built in Margueira, will, just as the Expo did in Lisbon, “redefine the face of the city” of Almada. “There will be a beautiful view of Almada from the Terreiro do Paço, first with Ginjal and then with Margueira,” she said.
Citizens enter the debate
The Ginjal Pier Detail Plan (PPCG), which provides for the requalification of an eight-hectare area in Cacilhas, has been subject to public consultations since last August, ending next Monday.
So far, according to Almada’s mayor, there has not been much participation in the public discussion, but a group of citizens promises to present some questions soon.
Cecília Fonseca says that there are “about 30” citizens who want to “understand, as citizens of Almada, what will happen to that space” and who complain that a forum for participation and a public inquiry on the PPCG were not supported by the municipality. Such initiatives were laid out in the Terms of Reference of the detail plan, approved unanimously at a meeting of Almada City Council on September 2, 2009.
The group argues that the process of public discussion is “not sufficient,” as the project is highly complex, and requires that more data be made available, such as the project’s possible impacts.
Queried by Público, the mayor highlighted the municipality’s efforts at disclosure, while stating that she believes that a forum or survey would be of limited value.
“This public consultation has been quite long, and we felt it was important to stimulate participation by creating this moment [of a new public presentation of the detail plan] to show the project.” Inês de Medeiros maintained that this option is a “richer” model than “having a forum in a closed room” and noted that, regardless of the forms of dissemination and clarification of the project, public participation “must be in writing at the public consultation.”
This written participation is what the group of citizens intends to do. Ms Fonseca told Público that, by the end of the consultation, they would present questions about various aspects of the plan.
One of the questions that they would like to see clarified is regarding the area’s accessibility. “We want to understand what is going to happen regarding public transport as it will increase the traffic out of Cacilhas and the 25 de Abril Bridge,” she said.
Another question will be about who the future housing, and who will have access to it. “Young families were referred to in the first version of the plan, but in this version, this reference no longer exists,” Ms Fonseca concluded.
Original Story: Público – Francisco Alves Rito
Translation: Richard Turner