Speaking to Lusa News Agency the head of one of the associations, Victor Guerreio, president of the Association for Algarve Commerce and Services (ACRAL), said they oppose the scale of the project, which spreads over 40 hectares, as well as the Environmental Impact Study put forward by its promoters, claiming it will affect the whole of the Algarve.
“The complex will create a new business nucleus and the entire region’s economy will be shaken,” as a result, Guerreiro said, claiming that for the many jobs that the project can create, it “will create twice as much unemployment” and further imbalances in the region, with a “brutal impact” on Algarve families.
At the end of May Swedish group Ikea was granted commercial licenses for the construction of a store and a retail centre and outlet in Loulé, a project which, according to its promoters, will create in the region of 3,000 jobs and represents a total investment of €200 million.
The company expects to inaugurate the Ikea store next year and the rest of the complex in 2017.
Nonetheless Victor Guerreiro refuses to accept the process is irreversible and has vowed to keep up the fight against the construction of a complex whose size he says is inadequate for the region.
According to Guerreiro, the national average size of large shopping centres is of 260 square foot per inhabitant; in the Algarve that figure is already at 450 square metres excluding the future complex which comprises the Ikea store.
This latest injunction is undersigned by ANJE/Algarve, ACRAL, the Association for Entrepreneurs of Quarteira and Vilamoura, the Algarve Association of Hotels and Tourist Resorts (AHETA), the Association for Industrial Hoteliers and Similar (AHISA), and by the Confederation for Algarve Entrepreneurs (CEAL).