However, the proprietors, Lusa News Agency reports, are vowing to stay put.“Thursday was the day given for us to be out by but we are going to contest it through the courts and we won’t leave,” said Francisco Tomás, commercial director of the shop that was established in 1916.
The shop received a letter informing its occupants that they were to leave the premises by the end of this year so that the Visibeira group could build a hotel there.
In a written reply to Lusa, Vista Alegre Atlantis, which is owned by Visabeira, said the future hotel is “inspired by the work of Bordallo Pinheiro and his vast artistic heritage.”
The note stressed that the current degraded state of the building and the building of a hotel both require remodelling works, and that as the building at present “poses a risk to the safety of people and, more specifically, to its occupants, and for that reason, and under the rental law, the landlord is entitled to revoke and cease existing contracts.”
The company further said that the project has already gained the approval of Lisbon Council.
Work on the hotel is expected to be complete in 2016 and cost in the region of €5.1 million.
Francisco Tomás argues that the construction of the hotel doesn’t necessarily imply that the ceramic store must close.
“Before being notified of the eviction we were in talks [with the Vista Alegre Atlantis] and things were moving towards a good solution for both parties. Then from one moment to the next, the links were severed, “he said.
According to Tomás, Lisbon Council “has been inconsistent throughout the process, “since it said it would “mediate the process and find a solution” yet at the same time “authorised the project.”
Francisco Tomás also said that the council had been asked to classify the shop as being of “municipal interest”, which the municipality refused, and argues: “It’s the last tile shop in town [...] and it is not a store of interest?”