On May 12th, a press release was issued concerning the 'Salgados – Praia Grande eco-Resort,' the promotion of the project by property consultancy CBRE, the ownership of the project by MillenniumBPC and the contact details of the PR agency, HK Strategies.
The press release triggered an eruption across the Algarve and further afield, causing environmental groups to sharpen up their campaign statements and local media to agree that the addition of ‘eco’ to the resort’s name, without changing the project detail, did little to make the press release anything more than a green-washing exercise.
The PR agency was asked to supply answers to some questions, including:
Q. Your promotional video shows an area of Praia Grande (beach) shaded out, as if for exclusive use. Yet the video, at the end, shows random public on the beach. Does the development intend to section off the beach for exclusive use of the development's property owners and guests?
The answer came back on the 15th May that “There are no private beaches in Portugal, by law. So there is no exclusive use for this case.”
Q. Can you tell me when this project was purchased by Millennium and when it received the go-ahead from the court?
No response
Q. Are you aware of the 'Save Salgados' petition with 33,718 signatures to date?
No response
23 May 2017
Q. I haven't heard from you or CBRE. I do need to write something about CBRE's attitude towards local media and, de facto, towards the Algarve's population that will be affected by this highly contentious development as I have not heard from them
Choices of adjective to far include:
Obstructive
High-handed
Non-communicative (too soft, perhaps?)
Arrogant
Incompetent
Deceptive
I can use of all of them of course but wondered what your opinion is?
Ed.
The PR agency did try to contact algarvedailynews today, May 23rd but meetings made a conversation impossible. HK Strategies later sent in a statement:
"As communicated on May 11, 2017 to the media, CBRE is the entity responsible for the commercialization of Praia Grande Eco-Resort, one of the main tourism projects for development in the Algarve, near Lagoa dos Salgados.
“CBRE was contracted by MillenniumBCP for the sale of Praia Grande Eco-Resort, and we do not have to make any additional declarations regarding the project."
Thanks,
Carlota Burnay
Account Director (HK Strategies)
In PR terms, this is a novel approach and shows those involved with selling this resort to investors are not prepared to engage with the local press or population, not prepared to explain how this resort has miraculously become an ‘eco’-resort, not prepared to answer some basic questions and overall appear content to remain contemptuous of an Algarve public that has every right to know what is planned on its doorstep and to oppose this development.
The men involved, José Araújo, Director of the Real Estate Business Division at MillenniumBPC, Francisco Sottomayor, Director of Promotion at CBRE and Eduardo Abreu, partner of Neoturis are faced with the Algarve’s most popular environmental petition ever launched, currently with 34,000 signatories from across the world. CLICK HERE
Silves council, now under the sane leadership of Rosa Palma, has issued a forthright statement about this planned hotel and golf course resort, lamenting the last mayor’s dedication to ruining swathes of open countryside for a ‘me too’ resort and stating that she and the current council are against the development which is old-style, intrusive and destructive. CLICK HERE
Almargem, is pressing ahead in a race to list the Salgados area near Armação de Pêra as a National Nature Reserve or a Protected Landscape to thwart the 4,000 bed tourist development. CLICK HERE
The Resident added a leader last week, ‘Last chunk of prime ‘greenbelt’ Algarve coastline in €200 million marketing campaign’. CLICK HERE
...and MillenniumBPC, its sales agency CBRE and the PR agency HK Strategies can advance nothing more than, “we do not have to make any additional declarations regarding the project."
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To sign the 'Save Salgados' petition, CLICK HERE
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The 'Friends of Lagoa dos Salgados' platform includes the following organisations:
A Rocha, Aldeia, Algarve123, www.algarvedailynews.com, Almargem, Birding in Portugal, Birdwatching Algarve, LPN, Portugal Resident, ProActiveTur, Quercus, SPEA
