Algarve business association ACRAL is back on the attack against Swedish retail giant IKEA, saying lay-people simply do not seem to understand the “megalomaniac” nature of the project that promises to “dry everything around it like a eucalyptus”.
“People think it’s just a normal IKEA store and thus cannot understand the dangers it poses to the regional economy,” ACRAL president Victor Guerreiro claims in a new statement released to the press.
“The Algarveans have to understand that what is planned is a mega commercial project with over 40 hectares.”
Guerreiro’s words come in the wake of a huge wave of support that the project has received, as the Resident saw on our Facebook page.
“Great news for both customers and on the job front!” and “wonderful, we had always to go to Seville before” were two of the many positive comments posted against our stories about the project moving forward.
This is why ACRAL is reemphasising that “the total project includes a 407,000sqm area, with one IKEA store, two shopping centres and two large stores with 20,000sqm each.”
“Once it has opened, this commercial giant threatens to destroy not only the stores of traditional trade, but also indirectly jeopardise the companies that provide services to these stores. It is this domino effect that we want to highlight,” Victor Guerreiro adds.
He stressed that ACRAL has “nothing against a simple IKEA store”.
“What we oppose is a disproportionate commercial project that wants to create something that no one can compete with and which will be deadly to a significant part of the regional economy,” he concludes.
As the Resident has reported on numerous occasions, IKEA’s plans to build this mega shopping complex have been opposed since the beginning, with environmental association Quercus criticising the environmental impact study (EIA) saying it was conducted by a firm hired by IKEA itself.
By MICHAEL BRUXO news@algarveresident.com
