The Centro Cultural de Belém will be completed 27 years later … but by private individuals

The completion works of the Belém cultural center project in Lisbon will cost 65 million euros and include the construction of a four or five star hotel and a building for offices and small shops. Between the two blocks, there will be a pedestrian area of ​​access to the general public.

The hotel will have a frontal view on the Tagus and the entrance will be made by the Avenida de Brasilia; already the office building and the shops will face the Rua Bartolomeu Dias. The construction of these two blocks will be financed by the private to whom the concession will be delivered, established for a period of 50 years, renewable.

Modules 4 and 5, as they have been designated since the eighties of the last century, are comprised between the current CWB building and the buildings where the modern university operated, just a stone's throw from the Belém tower.

The work must last at least three years

Tomorrow, the international public call will be open for the concession of the two remaining open spaces, within the perimeter of the CWB. The management of this institution will receive an annual income of at least 900,000 euros, during the concession period, from the winners of the advertised contract. The work should last at least three years.

The entire project will be served by an underground car park, located on one floor, roughly at the base of the exhibition grounds (preserving the construction problems that can be created by the high water table in the region).

The new building construction quota will never be greater than the existing blocks that already make up the CWB – five floors above ground. By cons, those who will stay with the new concessions know what areas can be built (7,170 square meters for the service building and 16,330 m2 for the hotel), and the exterior architecture will follow the same line as the CWB, the Italian architect Vittorio Gregotti.

Expresso is aware that since the CWB, led by Elísio Summaviele, has expressed interest in completing the project, it has already been surveyed by various hotel groups and real estate development companies.