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International Consortium to Invest More Than €100m in Viana Over the Next Decade

14 December 2017

An international consortium will invest more than 100 million euros in real estate projects in Viana do Castelo. The plans will be presented at the Second Meeting of Diaspora Investors that began Friday in the capital of Alto Minho.

Today, in a written response to a request for clarification sent by the Lusa news agency, the team that is leading the consortium’s projects, made up of Portuguese, French and Nordic companies, said that “the total investment in Viana do Castelo could amount to more than 110 million euros, which will give rise to indirect investments of close to 200 million euros over the next ten years.”

According to the design team, “the construction of condominiums for luxury housing, retirement homes and permanent housing will begin in the first quarter of next year, in an investment of more than 15 million euros.”

That project will be centred in the Parque da Cidade, on seven lots of land that were acquired for two million euros from VianaPolis by two companies, one French and the other Portuguese.

The land, situated on the Lima River, was managed by VianaPolis and put up for sale in 2006 for €21.6 million, but successive public tenders failed to find buyers, despite several revisions to the base price.

That price was set at 7.5 million euros during the last attempt to sell the property in 2013, and it remained on offer continuously since then, awaiting interested investors.

VianaPolis, which is responsible for the implementation of the Viana do Castelo Polis program and is 60% owned by the Ministries of Environment and Finance and 40% owned by the municipality, recovered the area and built the necessary infrastructure.

The international consortium’s investment plan will be presented during the Second Meeting of Diaspora Investors which will occur on Friday and Saturday in Viana do Castelo, in Forte Santiago da Barra. Fourteen members of the Portuguese federal government, including the heads of the Ministries of the Economy and Foreign Affairs, will take part in the event. The plan also foresees the construction of “a 5,000-square-meter aquarium/oceanarium and a new recreational marina in the Parque da Cidade.”

The Parque da Cidade has an area of 63,199 square meters of land for the construction of luxury housing, 1,776 square meters for commerce, 19,526 square meters of parking, in addition to 9,496 square meters of land for the construction of a hotel.

The project also includes “a technological centre aimed at attracting companies in the sector, a service building called “Health Market” and a hotel with about 7,000 square meters.

In addition to these projects, “economic and financial feasibility studies are also being developed for the rehabilitation and installation of three recreational marinas.”

The international consortium’s investment, promoted by GoldenConquest, with technical advisory by Cristiano Costa’s C&C Architects, “is designed to link investing partners to the entire development, and negotiations have been in progress for more than two years.”

In November, during the presentation of the second edition of the Meeting of Investors of the Diaspora, the Portuguese Secretary of State for Communities, José Luís Carneiro, added that more than 220 participants from 32 countries participated in the initiative.

He also said that in addition to the fourteen members of the government, the initiative would be attended by “more than 20 state entities to help potential investors in Portugal.”

Promoted by the Diaspora Investor Relations Office (GAID), the meeting aims to create “opportunities for reconnecting, networking and building trust for potential investors who are interested in investing in their homelands and who, at the same time, may also be open to accepting investment intentions from companies that are based in Portugal and have never gone through a process of internationalisation.”

Original Story: Dinheiro Vivo / Lusa

Translation: Richard Turner