... and so the pressure starts to be applied to Silves council as a massive German property developer applies for permission to turn the Fábrica do Inglês into an ALDI supermarket.
This is not the first time a development application has been made for the prime site as a project was submitted when the factory was owned by the Alicoop/Alisuper group, according to a report by Sul Informaçao.
Ratisbona Promoções e Construções Lda working under a German multinational that builds commercial real estate, is working hand in hand with Caixa Geral de Depósitos which secured the site for €2.23 million at auction in May this year.
Only by developing the site will the state bank be able to turn its asset into cash, it is close to worthless as an abandoned museum.
Silves council has the power to decide whether it wants to keep the historic site, that continues to deteriorate as it has no use, or whether the promise of investment and jobs will push any altruistic and aesthetic considerations to one side.
A public petition was launched in September this year in an attempt to secure the Fábrica do Inglês and the associated Cork Museum for Silves, demanding that the President of the Assembly and the Portuguese Association of Industrial Archaeology do something about the site as the current owner does not guarantee the museum collection will stay in its Silves home and that the museum was born from a desire to preserve a local, fast-disappearing heritage.
The government is unlikely to help as Caixa Geral de Depósitos exisits to make a profit and the government already has said that the site and the contents of the museum are in private hands and of no interest to the ministry.
The site is classified as Municipal Heritage but the Portuguese subsidiary of the German multinational argues that an ALDI supermarket will generate local jobs and will “complement the existing commercial offers in Silves,” after an investment of €3.5 million.
The plan aims to revitalise, rehabilitate and reopen the English Factory as a “unique and striking space in Silves” and already much of the preparatory work was done a while ago with the division of land and council approval for a four storey ‘boutique’ Aparthotel in 2007.
This was when the Mayor Isabel Soares ran Silves and her sister, rather conveniently, ran Alisuper/Alicoop. The hotel project ended up being shelved as Alicoop/Alisuper slid into insolvency.
The current mayor, Rosa Palma, commented to Sul Informaçao, that "maybe a few years ago bad decisions were made. Now, we must learn from previous mistakes and not make decisions that may perpetuate those mistakes."
The developer’s answer is that it will respect the history and culture of the site by building a 900m2 supermarket rather than a four storey hotel and that it will not build on the actual Cork Museum.
More concerning, despite the mayor’s protestations, is the developer’s claim that it already had had help from the council in preparing its plan, however Palma told Sul Informaçao that the council executive already has had a meeting with representatives of Ratisbona Promoções e Construções Lda about the proposed construction of a supermarket on half of the Fábrica do Inglês site. It was discussed and rejected,
"They were told, very clearly, by the members of the permanent and non-permanent executive, that the project is not in accord with the space. For that specific location, all argued against the building of a supermarket."
The mayor, quite sensibly, asks that the company’s representatives come and meet her to evaluate other possible locations for a supermarket in Silves, but the suits are adamant that "Only one location is viable in terms of future store sales. I find no other place to guarantee a sales volume to justify the investment of €3.5 million in this town," concluded Henrique Torres of Ratisbona Promoções e Construções.
Many suggest, therefore, that Henrique Torres of Ratisbona Promoções e Construções looks elsewhere.
For images and an article in Portuguese, see
