Grupo Nogueira, which in 2012 bought the Alisuper supermarket chain, auctioned today, for 36 thousand euros, the estate of the Cork Museum of Silves, in the public auction of Fábrica do Inglês, which took place in this complex.
On the other hand, the museum building, which was part of another lot, that of real estate, was sold at the base price of the bid, which amounted to 2.239.600 euros, by the representative of Caixa Geral de Depósitos. CGD is the largest creditor of Fábrica do Inglês Gestão de Empresas Imobiliárias e Turísticas SA, which once belonged to the universe of the bankrupt Alicoop/Alisuper group, and was expected to retain the facilities.
But no one, at least in the Chamber of Silves, knew of Grupo Nogueira's interest in the estate. The autarchy, represented by its president Rosa Palma, has started the bidding process, to acquire the estate, as was his intention, but faced with the interest of João Nogueira, director of the northern Group now with interests in the Algarve, he ended up giving up.
The base price was 30.600 euros, but the purchase ended up at 36 thousand. "I realized that any amount that I, on behalf of the Chamber, tried to bid, they would cover, so I had to stop," he told the Sul Informação, at the end of the auction, President Rosa Palma, visibly upset with the outcome.
«We immediately put in the Budget, a limit value for the purchase of this estate and we could not exceed it», explained the mayor.
Rosa Palma added that, before the public auction, the Chamber had already entered into talks with «other entities that might be interested in this estate, such as the Amorim Group [which has a cork factory in the municipality], as we had met last Wednesday Thursday, with Caixa Geral de Depósitos, precisely to communicate our interest in acquiring the estate. This situation was completely unexpected and I don't even know how to interpret it».
«When the bidding began, it was seen that there was a dispute between us and the other group. And it was seen that, whatever value the Chamber placed, it would overlap. The Chamber had stipulated budget limits, which it could not exceed,” he said.
At the end of the auction, the mayor of Silvense immediately entered into a dialogue with João Nogueira, trying to understand the Nogueira Group's intention with the purchase of a museum's estate.
The Group's administrator admitted that there could have been “some lack of communication” with the Silves Chamber, but assured that his interest was “to defend this estate and the Museum”.
But then, asked Rosa Palma, "if it was seen that the Chamber was bidding, why did it continue?" João Nogueira maintained that the interest of his business group was only the defense of the estate and said he had "a strategy for this", which he did not want to explain there.
In statements to the Sul informação, the businessman said that «the strategy, for now, is to keep the estate. We didn't know who was going to buy the facilities and how it will look like now. The buildings were kept by Caixa Geral de Depósitos, but tomorrow they may be sold. We have to talk to CGD to see if we can reach an agreement that is good for the council».
João Nogueira guaranteed that, prior to the auction, he «did not know about the Silves Chamber's intention to buy the estate», which is why he moved forward with the tender.
And will it be possible, in the future, to have some kind of understanding with the local authority, for the reopening of the Cork Museum? "Certainly! We came to the Algarve to get along with everyone, we didn't come here to settle conflicts with anyone», assured the businessman.
As soon as the auction had ended, João Nogueira spoke with Caixa's representative at the auction about the possibility of separating the building that houses the Cork Museum from the rest of the Fábrica do Inglês complex.
João Nogueira added, in his statements to our newspaper, that Grupo Nogueira intends to reopen the Cork Museum. “We've been trying to reopen the museum for six months. We've already had some meetings, to try to open even with the rest of the Fábrica do Inglês facilities closed. That's what we want to do».
Also present and registered at the auction was Pedro Duarte, from the Amorim Group, who did not bid for the estate, because he knew of the autarchy's interest. “We also followed the process, to prevent the Cork Museum's estate from being sold to a scrap dealer or someone with no interest in its patrimonial value. But we ended up not intervening in the auction because we learned of the Silves Chamber's interest in buying the estate», said the representative of Grupo Amorim, in the final conversation that brought together the Chamber's president and vice-president, the former director of the Museum, as well as João Nogueira and Luís Alves, both from the Nogueira Group.
Rosa Palma, despite the initial shock at not having managed to carry out the City Council's plan to buy the museum's estate at auction, still had hopes for a future understanding. «I'm still hopeful! Given the group that is, that is our acquaintance, is resident in our municipality, I am convinced that we will be able to come to an agreement with them. There are probably other fears that led Grupo Nogueira to take this attitude, in fact Mr. Nogueira himself said that it was a strategy they had. So let's wait».
In any case, underlined the mayor of Silva, "I will defend this heritage that is here tooth and nail and I will do everything for it to be the domain of the Chamber".
While the future of the Cork Museum and the Fábrica do Inglês remained, once again, undefined after the auction attended by close to fifty people, one thing is certain: the complex is classified as a building of municipal interest, for which reason there cannot be, for there, real estate appetites. «Every building has to maintain this structure and this design» and this already puts away «ideas that may involve the destruction of this heritage», concluded the mayor of Silves.
The auction, promoted by Leilosoc, is part of the insolvency process of Fábrica do Inglês Gestão de Empresas Imobiliárias e Turísticas SA, which owns the buildings of the former cork factory, which were transformed in 1999 into a restaurant and leisure complex. one of its wings, the Cork Museum, which was awarded the Luigi Micheletti prize in 2001.
With no money to buy the buildings – which total 5400 square meters of total area and 3200 meters of covered area – the Municipality of Silves was willing to acquire, in the auction, the estate of the Cork Museum.
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