Twists and turns in the sale process for the Herdade da Comporta estate have been added to, with the setting up of an environmental association, ‘Comporta.Utopia - Association for the Sustainability of Comporta.’
This charitable entity has been set up by Louis-Albert de Broglie, the French prince who submitted one of three proposals for the purchase of the estate, before the process was scrapped at a shareholders' meeting.
Comporta.Utopia proposes to play an active role in the sale and development process for the former ‘jewel in the crown’ of the Espírito Santo family.’ Ecological values will be respected, "in the national interest and for the long-term for the area," according to some early blurb.
The new association also has created a public petition to enable debate in parliament if enough signatures are submitted.
The Comporta estate’s management company, Gesfimo, has recrafted its sales process with bidders now required to submit a sealed offer via Deloitte. The opening of the envelope(s) will take place on September 20 in the presence of a notary.
Prince Louis-Albert de Broglie foresees the development of only 16% of the 650 hectares of approved construction land at Comporta, given the "fragility of the eco-systems” of the 12,000 hectare estate.
He also wants to create eight operation centres to "energise the local economy, engaged in organic farming, incubate startups and focus on recycling, art, school trips and conferences in a low-density project."
The Comporta.Utopia Association, to be run by Professor Pedro Bingre Amaral, from Coimbra, wants to be present at all stages of the sales process "on behalf of society."
Louis-Albert de Broglie is one of the three bidders in the failed sales process. One of the others, Vanguard, says that Louis-Albert's initiative to create a Comporta environmental association is "inopportune."
José Cardoso Botelho, Managing Director of Vanguard Properties in a consortium with Amorim Luxury, reacted with heavy sarcasm to the news of Louis-Albert de Broglie’s ecological move:
"Good idea. Perhaps your friend Louis-Albert will agree to join our future advisory council for the areas of environment, biodiversity, traditional trade and education. For the time being, as competitors it seems to us inopportune to publicly launch this initiative twenty days before the final delivery of the proposals."
Louis-Albert is in a consortium with Global Asset Capital and the Bonmont group with the backing of Crédit Agricole.
Meanwhile, Herdade da Comporta and its management are under suspicion in a police inquiry into an estimated 100 dodgy land deals. Civil servants are in the frame as well as property owners, a dozen at least are members of the Espírito Santo clan.
For once, we have an inquiry which seems not to involve Ricardo Salgado, the disgraced banker under whose tenure the Espírito Group collapsed, but it does include two local councils and the regional development board.
Salgado’s seaside home at Comporta was allowed by the relevant authorities as part of a deal with Vera Espírito Santo, for years the doyenne of the estate. Salgado agreed with Vera that Comporta would not be overdeveloped and that much of the estate would remain agricultural.
In return for agreeing this sensitive development path for the estate, the interpretation of local planning regulations at Grândola Council legally accommodated a seaside home for the ‘Dono Disto Tudo.’
The properties currently under the spotlight are on land that has been divided up and sold off by brothers Caetano and Carloto Beirão da Veiga, who run Gesfimo and are long suspected of fraudulent and corrupt activities.
According to the prosecution document, the defendants in the case involving 'illegal' properties at Comporta are Carlos Beato, mayor of Grândola between 2002 and 2013; two former city councilors of the municipality, Aníbal Cordeiro (2005-2012) and Ricardo Campaniço (2012-2013); the former head of the Urban Development Division Carlos Matos (until 2014); the technical director of the work, Joel Sequeira; and the then vice president of the Alentejo Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR), Jorge Honório.
There is a petition set up by Comporta.Utopia - cick HERE
