A circa €2 bn development project on the south bank of Lisbon’s Tejo river will be put on the market by its owner, the Portuguese state, during the first half of this year, EuroProperty has learned.
The Water City site, also known as ‘the Manhattan of Lisbon’, was presented at Mipim last year in an attempt to attract international investors and developers ahead of the public sales process.
Sources say the project has captured the interest of a number of foreign players, despite the huge development costs involved.
‘I expect that the state will not set a high price because the investors will already be burdened with the high cost of infrastructure involved. So it will not be the largest deal of the year by price but probably by volume of square metres,’ said a source who requested anonymity.
The development, covering an area of 60 ha with a 2 km waterfront, is currently managed by Baía Do Tejo, which in turn is owned by the state-owned Estamo company.
Located on the abandoned site of a naval dockyard known as ‘Lisnave’, the project would be the largest urban regeneration project in the Lisbon region, providing more than 630,000 m2 of space including housing, hotel, office, retail, cultural and leisure areas.
The asset is the largest of a string of new investment opportunities about to be put on the market in Lisbon. Grupo Caixa Geral de Depósitos, through its Fundimo open-ended fund, is on the brink of launching the sale of a portfolio of four office buildings worth around €50 mln.
Three of the assets are located in the city’s Arquiparque business park, while the other, Atlas4, is in the Miraflores area of the Portuguese capital.
Similarly, agent CBRE has been mandated to sell a mixed portfolio believed to be worth around €50 mln.
Landlords Partners Group and private equity firm Explorer acquired the properties in mid-2017 as part of a larger €150 mln package and are now reselling five assets totalling 18,000 m2.
The portfolio, which is 98% occupied, includes three office buildings, a clinic and a bank.
This story first appeared in EuroProperty, PropertyEU's sister publication
