The concession for the operation of three of the four bar units on the riverfront by the Avenida dos Descobrimentos in Lagos was signed this week by the municipal company, Futurlagos.
The concession for the operation of the three bars on the roof of the car park on the riverfront was awarded after a public tender, initially launched in 2012 by Futurlagos Empresa Local para o Desenvolvimento, which holds the powers to grant leases and to exploit the commercial potential of this commercial area.
The three units are now on 30 year leases awarded to two companies, Cunning Planaqua, Actividades Náuticas Lda and New Paradigm, Investimentos Imobiliários Lda with the lease signed by manager and legal representative, Nicolas Arnold. The buisnesses will pay €100,000 up front and a monthly rent of €2,000 - although no payments are to be made in year one. This is significantly less than the original 'ask' of €200,000 under the deluded former mayor Júlio Barroso.
The contracts later were approved by Mayor Maria Joaquina Matos at a ceremony on January 27th the day that marked the 441st anniversary of the elevation of Lagos to City status.
This project for the creation of these new bars was controversial from the start. At first the previous mayor decreed that these council owned bars could remain open until 06.00am, long after all the other bars and cafes in the entire Lagos municipality were forced, by a cunning new by-law, to shut at midnight.
This proposal led to widespread local protest and a campaign that saw the mayor and his fellows heckled at a heated public meeting, later retreating in disarray from this transparently crooked arrangement. A side issue was Barroso's insistence that all bars would have to have special sound monitoring equipment to be supplied by a company 25% owned by the husband of the council's head of Inspection and Audit who later was suspended due to the public outcry.
The Algarve-based campaign group ASMAA coordinated the Bar-wars campaign and also pointed out that the council, by opening and operating bars of its own in competition with many of its local business ratepayers, was operating against EC laws applying to local government trading activities.
The three leased units are to oeprate as bars serving the usual food and drinks inside and out on the terrace. The remaining unit initially may become a shop for ‘gourmet products’ but whether this is run by the council or leased out remains to be clarified.
