There are 23.000 sqm available to construct in that part of the city, where the group proposes to build more than 71.000 sqm of gross area above the ground.
The Preliminary Request for Information for this operation has already been sent to the Porto City Hall. According to the parcelling proposed to the municipality, the terrain will be divided into three parcels. One of them, with one hectare, will become a shopping centre and a hotel with 7 floors above the ground and six underground. This represents almost 54.200 sqm above the ground.
On another parcel, El Corte Inglés wants to construct two adjacent buildings one for housing with 15.000 sqm and the other for commerce and services with 1.925 sqm. The project also includes the construction of two streets and the delivery of the third parcel next to the Casa da Música transport hub, with 4.200 sqm, to the municipality.
Portuguese newspaper Público explained that El Corte Inglés already owns some of the buildings on that block, and that it has already paid Infra-estruturas de Portugal (IP) around 18.7 million euro (part of this amount as a deposit) so as to have surface rights over the parcel where the former Boavista train station used to be. In the meanwhile, part of these 27.000 sqm were yielded to the municipality in order to broaden the Avenida de França and to construct the Casa da Música transport hub. It is within the remaining 23.000 sqm, which are owned by IP and El Corte Inglés, that the Spanish group wants to develop this project.
