“We received a letter from the investor withdrawing the intention to make the investment,” said Pedro Folgado, in statements to the Lusa news agency.
According to the mayor, the project was submitted to the city council at the beginning of this year and “is ready to be implemented”, meeting the conditions to be licensed.
The municipality of the district of Lisbon is analysing with its lawyers the implications of the developer's decision and has once again contacted “potential investors who have shown interest” in the project.
In February 2020, the former Chemina textile factory, abandoned for 24 years, was sold at a public auction by this municipality for 1.1 million euros to the company Sunshine Life - Investimento Imobiliário Unipessoal Lda, owned by an Asian developer, which was the only bidder.
In a press release, now released, PSD councillor Nuno Miguel Henriques criticised the position of the socialist majority throughout this process. He also warned that, as the building is in its current state, it constitutes a “public danger” given the “decades of decay” to which it has been subjected, and could be a “privileged location for housing or services” capable of “revitalising the urban area that is suffering from stagnation”.
The mayor clarified that “the building is stable”, but, as in the past, he maintains “concerns about the risk” it presents due to having been vacant for 24 years “until it is fully restored”.
Pedro Folgado said that he wanted to renovate the building because, in its current state, it “devalues the town centre”, and because renovation works were planned for the surrounding public space.
As defined in the public auction, the developer was required to transform the old factory into a hotel unit for spa treatments.
The local authority advocated the construction of a hotel unit in the old factory to address the lack of tourist facilities in the municipality and to boost the local economy.
The project included an aparthotel with 50 to 80 rooms, a spa, an auditorium, which would be ceded to the municipality for 20 hours per month, and the maintenance of the architectural design of the façade of the historic building.
The developer had a period of three and a half years [from the public auction] to start the works, after which penalties of 50 thousand euros per year would be applied, the local authority explained at the time.
If the project does not move forward within five years, the municipality has the right to request the repossession of the building.
In September 2020, due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Municipal Assembly approved a six-month extension of the deadline.
The Chemina factory opened in 1890, employing two hundred workers over the years.
It closed around 1994, following a turbulent bankruptcy process, and the building was acquired by the municipality, which intended it as a cultural center, a school and a hotel, but none of the projects came to fruition. In 2000, it was the target of a fire, which left it in a state of disrepair.
The building, which is part of the town's urban fabric, consists of three floors, has another annex where the old boiler and steam engine were located, and has a façade that reaches 16 meters high and 110 meters wide.