A joint order from the Regional Secretariats for Agriculture and Food and Environment and Climate Action published in the Official Gazette recognizes as “an action of significant public interest” the project to rehabilitate and expand the old hotel located in the parish of Candelária, in the municipality of Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel, “through the development of an Environmental Impact Study that results in a favourable or conditionally favourable Environmental Impact Declaration”.

The decision is justified given the importance of the investment and taking into account that the planned intervention “cannot be carried out in areas not integrated into the Ecological Reserve”.

According to the publication, the company Constellation Version, S.A. intends to renovate and expand the hotel and the regional executive (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM) considers “that it is a strategic point that can boost visits to the island of São Miguel, more specifically to the Vista do Rei viewpoint”.


“The building in question is currently abandoned and in a serious state of disrepair, and the proposed project aims to minimize the impact of the intervention, maintaining and respecting the appearance of the existing building”, it reads.

The order states that, in addition to the need to restore the property, “it is necessary to restructure it to ensure that the operation is viable and does not allow for the failures that culminated in its closure and subsequent abandonment, so the space required for guests to enjoy must be larger, thus envisaging a reformulation of the interior and exterior spaces”.

“Significant investment”

The renovation of the building “requires a significant investment by the company Constellation Version, S.A., and as a guarantee of its operability, it is planned to expand the current area by around 20%, with the aim of increasing the number of rooms in the hotel, as well as offering commercial spaces”.

However, the text continues, the site of the intervention is covered by the Municipal Master Plan of Ponta Delgada, overlapping with Rural Land - Forest Spaces, and the area to be intervened “also overlaps a tiny part of the outer limit of the Natural Park of Ilha de São Miguel”.

“To this extent, the implementation of the project in question necessarily depends on recognition as an action of relevant public interest”, is justified in the document signed by the regional secretaries for Agriculture and Food, António Ventura, and for the Environment and Climate Action, Alonso Miguel.

The Monte Palace Hotel opened in 1989 and employed over 100 people, but closed shortly afterwards due to lack of profit.

The five-storey building had two restaurants, three conference rooms, a nightclub, a shop, 88 rooms, 52 junior suites, 27 double rooms, four double rooms with a sitting room, four luxury suites and a presidential suite.

Located next to the Vista do Rei viewpoint, overlooking the Sete Cidades lagoon, the hotel had 24-hour security until 2010, but was later abandoned, vandalised and looted.

The Monte Palace, the first five-star hotel in the Azores, won the award for Best Hotel of the Year in Portugal in 1990.

At the end of 2017, Level Constellation acquired the building and promised to reopen the hotel, maintaining its architectural design.