At the end of 2023, Novobanco closed the sale of Arade to Lintinvest and Cabanas Golf to RE Capital. The financial institution is thus selling two of the five plots of land included in the Eleanor portfolio, a deal valued at 365 million euros.
According to information released this Friday by the Eco, at the end of last year the land located next to the marina in Portimão, Arade, was sold to Lintinvest, a developer in the Caldas da Rainha area. The transaction was closed for slightly less than 30 million euros, below the 32 million requested by the bank.
In addition, the land adjacent to TagusPark, part of the Cabanas Golf development, was sold to RE Capital, a pan-European company specializing in investment, development and asset management. This deal was concluded for an amount of between 35 and 40 million euros.
Presented at the end of May last year, the Eleanor Project comprises five real estate assets. For Volkert Schmidt, CEO of the Novobanco Real Estate Group, these five plots of land are the bank's "best assets".
Novo Banco has already raised 70 million
However, due to licensing and architectural issues, the investors interested in the remaining three plots of land two located in Lisbon (Amoreiras and Parque das Nações) and one in Benagil opted to wait for the approval of the projects by the local authorities before finalizing the deal.
For now, these three processes have been suspended, according to the same media outlet. As a result, of the 365 million initially requested by the bank, only around 70 million has been secured so far.
With regard to the Arade site, which covers an area of 116,000 square meters in front of the Portimão marina, a license has been obtained for the construction of a hotel comprising 153 rooms, to which are added 613 tourist apartments and another 652 residential apartments, i.e. a total of 1.265 apartments. Volkert Schmidt pointed out that the project has the necessary scale to create a new Portimão, and also includes plans to build a commercial space and a public garden.
In the case of the land in Oeiras, Cabanas Golf, which has a gross construction area of 80,000 square meters, the approved project foresees the construction of tourist apartments, stores and a golf course.
Bank wants to sell Benagil land by the end of the year
Novobanco still plans to sell the Benagil site by the end of this year – the financial institution is asking for 52 million euros. According to Eco, there are at least three parties interested in investing in the land: the company that owns the Sana group, a Mexican group and another Ukrainian group. The planned project will be a luxury hotel with 150 rooms, 288 apartments, plus 242 townhouses and five luxury villas. The property has a total area of 59,000 square meters.
As for the two plots in Lisbon, the sale is expected to close in the next few years due to delays in licensing, which is why several investors have pulled out of the deal. Only Bain Capital, Sixth Street, Norfin, a Brazilian group and an American fund remain interested, which the media outlet in question knows have submitted bids well below what the bank is asking for.