Construction of Ikea in Loulé snatched on Monday – publico

                 

                         
                     

                 

 
                         

They ripped off on Monday the construction of the new unit of the Ikea group in Loulé, which includes store, shopping center and outlet . The project of the Swedish chain plans to create 3,000 direct and indirect jobs and investment of EUR 200 million.

                     

                         The group plans to open the Loulé store in 2016 and the remaining complex the following year. In a statement, Ikea said that the project will be presented to the media on 2 September, at 16h30, in the main auditorium of the Loulé Municipal Assembly.

The start of works comes after the group has received May building permits, following a long controversial process, which still seems far from over.

In early July, six business associations announced they would proceed with a third injunction to halt the construction of the complex commercial. The National Association of Young Entrepreneurs of the Algarve, the Association of Trade and Services of the Algarve Region, the Quarteira and Vilamoura Business Association, the Association of Hotels and resorts in the Algarve, the Association of Hoteliers Industrial and Similar Algarve and the Algarve Business Confederation dispute the size of the project (which occupies 40 hectares) and the environmental impact study presented by prosecutors, considering that the construction will be detrimental to the region.

The same authorities had already submitted a injunction in 2013 to try to prevent the location of Ikea in Loulé, near the Loulé-Faro node A22, an area near the Algarve Stadium.

To allow installation in that place, the Municipal Assembly Loulé approved in 2013 the Caliços-Esteval Urban Plan, with the reclassification of those lands that once formed the National Agricultural Reserve, going to allow urban use.

The project was approved in Loulé but in Faro chumbou chamber in January, the permit application for the construction of an access from the Via do Infante (the only part of the project which is in the municipality of Faro). Councilman’s PS Paul Neves, author of the rejection proposal, argued that this work “affects or could affect the natural heritage and landscape of the county,” stressing that the size of nvo venture Ikea will be three times more than the one of . Forum Algarve, located just outside Faro

The president of Faro Council, Rogério Cod, PSD, acknowledged at the time that “there will be impact – the same has been the case with the construction of the Algarve Forum [opened in 2001], but there is no way to prevent free competition. “