The Revive Programme – designed to recover rundown monuments while keeping them in State ownership – has bagged over a million euros in rental income from just 17 sites.
With another 31 in the pipeline, minister for Culture Graça Fonseca is confident that Revive is “changing the paradigm in the way State property is managed”.
Previously, all the monuments involved were either gathering cobwebs or just gently crumbling.
Now they’re being ‘revived’ – mostly for touristic purposes, on long-term leases taken out by private enterprises (click here).
For Luís Araújo, president of Turismo de Portugal, “the results are clear. The 17 tenders launched up till now will guarantee the State a million in annual rental income, in investments that total around 120 million euros themselves”.
More to the point, is the interest the Revive Programme has elicited.
At the launch of ‘phase two’ in Lisbon on Thursday, economy minister Pedro Siza Vieira said authorities had received over 500 ‘notifications of interest’ for the first 17 tenders.
With the next 15 now being made available, he said thanks have to go to the businesses investing in these historic buildings.
“I know sometimes that the challenges involved are difficult, but more than a hotel project, this programme is a sign of (people exercising) civic responsibility/ citizenship”, he said.
New ‘monuments’ coming up for tender include: Palacete Viscondessa de Santiago do Lobão (Porto), Fortaleza da Juromenha (Alandroal), Mosteiro de S. José (Évora), Forte Velho do Outão (Setúbal), Casa do Outeiro (Paredes de Coura), Castelo de Almada (Almada), Fortaleza da Torre Velha (Almada), Forte da Cadaveira (Cascais), Quinta do Cabo das Lezírias (Vila Franca de Xira), Edifício Pombalino na Praça do Comércio (Lisboa), Casa da Igreja (Mondim de Basto), Quartel das Esquadras (Almeida), Centro Educativo de Vila Fernando (Elvas), Casa das Fardas (Estremoz), Palacete Conde Dias Garcia (S. João da Madeira).
The first building recovered as a result of Revive – The Convento do São Paulo in Elvas – opened to the public this summer, transformed by the Vila Galé group into the first ‘Collection Historic Hotel, Conference and Spa’ at a cost of nine million euros.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
Image: the newly recovered Convento de São Paulo in Elvas
