The Apolónia group is preparing to invest 49 million euros in a commercial complex in Almancil, to be built very close to the place where the first supermarket of the Algarve group was opened.
In addition to a retail store, the «Alma Plaza Lifestyle Center» project, whose Environmental Impact Study (EIA) is currently under public consultation, foresees the installation of a cinema and a clinic, among other aspects, which between them, they are expected to create up to 505 direct jobs and 210 indirect jobs throughout the year.
Those interested in making their contribution or in getting to know better the project and the foreseeable environmental impacts, can do so until July 2nd. The document can be consulted in person at the Portuguese Environment Agency, in Amadora, at the Regional Coordination and Development Commission of the Algarve, in Faro, and in the Chamber of Loulé. It can also be consulted online, on the CCDRA website.
The investment that the Algarve group intends to make amounts to 49 million euros, 35 of which will come from abroad. And it will be held “at home”, since the new commercial unit is located just 500 meters from the place where Avelino and Célia Apolónia started this family business, about 30 years ago. It will not even change streets, in this case, Avenida 5 de Outubro, which connects the EN 125 to the center of Almancil.
What will change is the scale of the commercial enterprise. The new space will occupy a total area of 5,5 hectares, 2,2 of which are built (maximum height 12 meters, average height 7 meters), with the construction of an underground car park, on two floors, with capacity for 1.598 posts.
«The project comprises the development of an “integrated commercial complex” type enterprise, encompassing several distinct but complementary functional areas. As a whole, the project will consist of an Apolónia supermarket, leisure and entertainment areas (cinemas), health services (clinic), various product stores and a set of restaurants and cafeterias», reads the Non-Technical Summary of EIA, now under public consultation.
The work should be completed 17 months after its start and will, in the construction phase, employ 100 workers, in addition to creating 250 indirect jobs.
Arguments that, for the authors of the EIA, justify its approval. The location where the project will be implemented is not “inserted in any classified nature conservation area, protected area or Natura 2000 network” and has a “low” propensity for agriculture.
It is located, moreover, in an «urbanization area programmed by the Municipal Master Plan of Loulé, so, in the medium term, the transformation of this area and the loss of its current natural characteristics is envisaged.
Still, it is not entirely devoid of natural values. On the land, there are 176 cork oaks, a protected species whose felling depends on special authorization. The project proponents, in the preliminary study on which this EIA focused, propose that "93 be slaughtered and 83 specimens kept".
«Thus, part of the cork oaks will be preserved, being framed in the area of green spaces. (…) It should be noted that the project design was conceived in such a way as to safeguard as many cork oaks as possible», say the authors of the EIA.
«To minimize the impacts associated with the felling of cork oaks on the ground, the proponent presented a forest compensation project and the respective management plan, which covers the constitution of new cork oak and holm oak areas on private land, located in Alcoutim, with a total area of 13,2 hectares», is also read in the document.
This is the main negative impact that the EIA points out, in relation to the site, as it considers “that the services associated with this ecosystem, which support biodiversity, regularization, production and culture, are currently reduced”. The foreseeable increase in car traffic may also have impacts, but it is not expected that “the limits of capacity of the access roads will be exceeded”.
In the meantime, the project has already received a favorable opinion regarding the application for the installation of the project, which it sent to the Ministry of Economy and Innovation, through the Regional Directorate of Economy of the Algarve, as well as the General Directorate of Economic Activities and the Municipality of Loulé, who approved your location.
«The urban analysis of the claim, and the respective verification of compliance by the Municipality of Loulé, allowed us to conclude that the project presents conformity of uses and that the proposed urban parameters fall within the maximum allowed», reads the EIA.
And, in the absence of an alternative location proposal, the other hypothesis on the table is the so-called "zero alternative", that is, the non-construction of the project, something that, in the view of the authors of the EIA, is not recommended, since that «it is likely that the impacts foreseen for most factors arising from the implementation of the commercial complex will occur anyway, even without its construction», due to the urban surroundings of the place.
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