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Habitat Invest and GFH Transform CTT Building into New Tourism Project

2 January 2018

The CTT building on Avenida dos Aliados in Porto, which was a candidate to host the new headquarters of the European Medicines Agency, will be converted into use for a new tourism venture, in a 55-million-euro investment by Habitat Invest and Grupo Ferreira (GFH).

The report, published by Expresso, stated that the investment would create a hotel with 104 rooms and 70 apartments for residential and tourist use, as well as six shops and an area for CTT. The same development group also owns the 8 Building in Lisbon, which was the former headquarters of CTT, and was converted into a residential tourist accommodation project with 107 apartments, 16 shops and rooftop restaurant.

Luis Corrêa de Barros, one of the founders of the Habitat Invest group, explained that “following the 8 Building in Lisbon, we are now investing in a similar project in the city of Porto. We have already received approval for our PIP (Prior Information Request), an architectural project authored by Ginestal Machado is already underway, and we hope to move forward with construction in 2018,” the same newspaper reported.

The project’s idea is “to maintain the building’s structure, as it was very well built in reinforced concrete, and the entire façade. The property will be simple to convert, and our goal is essentially limited to modernising the building.”

30 of the 70 apartments will be studios, one of the most sought-after investments in residential tourism. Regarding the hotel, negotiations are taking place with some hotels, “some of which are linked to funds that can then opt for acquiring the property after the project takes off”, the executive explained.

The building in Porto is one of thirteen projects that Habitat Invest currently has in its portfolio. Eight are in Lisbon, two in Porto and three in Cascais. The thirteen ventures have a total of 940 apartments, with an investment of 340 million euros.

Original Story: Vida Imobiliária – Ana Tavares

Translation: Richard Turner