A five-star hotel, the first in the county, about to open, and the start of construction of a second luxury hotel is expected to take place soon. Vila Real de Santo António City Council has been investing heavily in the development of the tourism sector, namely in the county seat, managed to attract private investment and intends to continue to do so in the future.
Hotel Guadiana is the most advanced project. The restoration works of this hotel unit, a ex libris of the city of VRSA, are practically completed. The opening of the hotel, now with 5 stars, will take place «in the middle of June».
«This hotel unit will bring a type of tourism here that will greatly affect our local economy. There is growing interest here in our corner and I think this is very important», he told the Sul Informação the president of the Chamber of VRSA Conceição Cabrita, during the interview she gave to our newspaper, the first in-depth interview with a media outlet since she was elected in October.
In addition to the building where it already operated, the renovated Hotel Guadiana also has another accommodation area, located in the former Casa da Alfândega, where there are «four suites premium» and where «breakfast and small meals» will be served. At night, this «pretty old structure» will be the stage for initiatives, such as «fado nights, jazz… a little bit of everything».
«And then we have the Beach Club, in Ponta da Areia, where we also want to create a quality zone.», added the mayor.
This is just the first of many private hotel investments that are in the pipeline in VRSA. Also emblematic is the future Pousada de Portugal, which will have the historic center of this city as a link.
«Before the end of this month [April] we are going to sign the deed to start the work on the Pestana Group's Pousada de Portugal. It will be a unit right in the center of VRSA that will also attract other types of tourists here», illustrated Conceição Cabrita, to Sul Informação.
This Pousada de Portugal will be based on the same logic as the others that the Pestana group explores throughout the country – the use of historical heritage -, but the model will be different, since the hotel will be spread over different buildings in the Baixa Pombalina de VRSA.
Altogether, there will be four distinct spaces, all in the central square area, where the Town Hall are located, one of which is owned by the City Council, where the services of the municipal company SGU came to function. The other spaces are private property.
“The process ended up being delayed a little because Pestana has to acquire buildings that belong to private individuals. And bringing all these heirs together to make the deed is proving to be a problem. This land is full of large heirs and large families, so getting all these people together is a load of work», framed Conceição Cabrita.
This hotel unit “will have 57 rooms and will create about 30 direct jobs”.
The Baixa Pombalina de VRSA is on the rise, but it is not the only place in the county that arouses the greed of investors. There are also interested in investing in an area very close by, next to the Guadiana, in an old industrial area that is now very degraded.
«Our intention is to value the Guadiana river and the riverside area more and more. We don't want to be facing away from the river, but facing it. Let's try to develop a project with an English background. This process already started in the previous term, but it was stopped. Now we want to see if we can give it a boost»
This tourist development will be built next to the loading dock for the Guadiana river routes, at one of the entrances to the prime area of the city. «We want to develop the entire area, as the entrance to Vila Real is no longer in line with the vision we have for the municipality».
also em Monte Gordo there is investment to be made in the riverside zone, in this case, public. “We decided to go ahead with the demolitions ourselves, so that the beach cleaning process could move forward more quickly. The beach supports are already being built, although there are some procedural difficulties on the part of the concessionaires. It may not even be on the 13th of May, but in summer the vast majority of establishments will be open. We will have a completely renovated bathing area, a quality beach».
Em Monte Gordo, the construction of a charming hotel is also planned, right next to the beach, where today there are parking spaces and playing fields. A project that was much contested by the owners of the building on the other side of the coastal avenue, who even tried to stop the construction of the project in Court, and which recently suffered a strong setback, following a negative opinion from the Portuguese Agency of Environment (APA).
A situation that Conceição Cabrita does not accept. "I was very surprised by this news, as I had a meeting with Environment Minister João Matos Fernandes precisely the day before [receiving the opinion] and that was one of the subjects we talked about".
The town councilor from Vila Real recalled that "two years ago, the APA issued a favorable opinion and we moved forward with the process." At the time, the Chamber of VRSA surveyed the regional services of this agency to find out if it would be a problem to install the hotel in that location, rather than in another location, more to the West, but in an area not yet sealed.
“That area has always been managed by us, we do fairs there and other things. What we were told was that the hotel should not be built on the originally planned location, but rather move to the area that was already consolidated. In environmental terms, it is less problematic, considering that the other location is next to the primary dune», he assured the Sul Informação Cabrita Conception.
With the approval of the APA, the Chamber proceeded with the tender, "which had the green light from all entities." However, when the project was awarded to the Melia group, «at the beginning of the campaign, there was an unfavorable opinion from the APA, but at a central level».
“They let all these months go by, they let everything be done, and now they claim that the land was not ours, that we cannot sell it. But we cannot have two opposing opinions from the same entity!” he affirmed. But, “out of curiosity, the minister told me that he is not concerned about the ownership of the land. These are inconsistencies that don't make sense».
João Matos Fernandes undertook to give an answer "within a month". It is certain that, without this question, the construction of this «5-star hotel, of low density», would already be «at a very advanced stage, as they wanted to start selling this summer».
Another project that has also been talked about for a long time is the VRSA Sports Complex hotel. This 4-star hotel aims to «support the internships that take place there» and enhance the complex, where there is already a High Performance Center. “We are being increasingly sought after. This is a business and there are more and more centers that have associated stay, something that we are still unable to offer», said Conceição Cabrita in her interview with Sul Informação.
In this case, the situation is being delayed by the relocation of the tennis and paddle tennis courts that exist in the complex, a task of the contractor, who «can only proceed with the work after completing this process». The company that won the competition estimates investing 7 million euros to create a «modern hotel», with 300 beds.
«All these are investments that can give more value here to our municipality, to our population and, in turn, help lower the Chamber's liabilities», concluded the President of the Chamber of VRSA.
Photos: Fabiana Saboya | Sul Informação
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