Through Estamo, the State sold the former Hospital do Desterro, in Lisbon, to the Mainside group (creator and former owner of Lx Factory), for 10.5 million euros, according to its website.
The group occupied the space as a tenant since 2013, and has now ended up acquiring the property, where it intends to follow the initial plan, to transform the former hospital into a mixed project with two Zero Hotels (Mainside brand), catering and other uses, confirmed a source from Mainside to Eco.
It was in 2013 that Mainside signed a protocol with the Lisbon City Council and Estamo for the rehabilitation of the old hospital, which operated as a convent until 1834, but the project, which should have started immediately, suffered successive delays and reformulations.
In 2018, the newspaper recalls, Mainside even pointed to the completion of part of the project in the third quarter of 2019. Later, in June 2020, it even considered abandoning the project, after Estamo had refused a request for temporary suspension. of rents, of 25,000 euros per month, due to the effects of the pandemic.
Susana Pais, coordinator of the Mainside project, recalls that “all this time has passed without the project coming to fruition. There was a pandemic in between, which intensified everything, and it got to a point where we put that [purchase] option on the table because it would simplify everything. And we were able to reach that conclusion.”
