The saga continues at the Fabrica do Inglês as, according to a report in today’s Sul Informaçao, Silves council now wants to buy the entire site from Caixa Geral de Depósitos, the bank that ended up owning it.
Rosa Palma, the Silves mayor, is looking to see if the council can afford to secure the site so it can once again be host to the award-winning cork museum.
Caixa Geral de Depósitos ended up with the site at an auction in May 2014 at a transfer value of €2,239,600. The contents of the museum were allocated to another creditor at the same auction, João Nogueira of the Nogueira Group, owner of Ali Super.
Ideally the two businesses will cooperate to allow the site once again to have a museum and draw tourists to the city but much depends on what the bank is able legally to do with the property.
"Given that we still are paying off the debt we inherited from the previous executive, we have to evaluate very carefully our finances to see if you can proceed with the purchase of the property," explained Rose Palma to Sul Informaçao.
Palma has the upper hand with the bank and the council can block any redevelopment of the site. Palma also is seeking agreement with the Nogueira Group for the valuable collection of industrial machinery and records of the cork industry "to be classified as of municipal interest.”
João Nogueira wants to display the artifacts but is dependent on the new owners of the site who do not want to play ball, refusing his request to rent the building so as to reopen the museum.
Rumours about a deal with Aldi Supermarkets buying and developing the site have been denied by the mayor who said the council already have discussed the site and turning it into a supermarket is not an option.
João Nogueira commented to Sul Informaçao that he was left with the contents of the museum because Alisuper was owed €7 million by Fabrica Inglês so took the contents in lieu of some of this debt.
It is not clear why the mayor is discussing the purchase of the site with local media as if the site can not be redeveloped it is as good as worthless to the bank despite it sitting on its books at €2,239,600.
João Nogueira seems keen to allow the public to appreciate his new acquisition of cork-related machinery and records.
The bank may well have a community programme and could gift the site to the council in a tax-efficient manner.
This solution, or something like it, is better than allowing another supermarket to bulldoze the site in order to sell cheap food.
