The Lisbon city council has approved a proposal from the social-democratic leadership of the municipality to submit to the city assembly a concession contract, a public auction program, and terms of reference for the “exclusive use of the municipal public domain for the operation of a kiosk intended for beverage and restaurant establishment, with a terrace, in Praça de Espanha.”
“The municipality of Lisbon has ensured a strategy of enhancing and qualifying public space, promoting business solutions intrinsically linked to public space that strengthen the local economy and job creation,” stated the proposal from the city’s president, Carlos Moedas, and the Green Structure councilor, Rui Cordeiro, both from the PSD party.
The document highlights that the municipality owns a building designated for a cafe in the Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles Urban Park, near the access through Avenida Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, in the Campolide parish, and aims to “assign the private use of this kiosk for the operation of beverage and restaurant activities, with a terrace.”
The concession for the kiosk’s operation is subject to public auction proceedings, “thus ensuring competition, transparency, and good public management,” the proposal noted, adding that based on the real estate valuation report, “the starting bid value is 2,500 euros.”
The Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles Urban Park, located in Praça de Espanha, was opened on June 13, 2021, during the term of the socialist Fernando Medina, spanning an area of six hectares, connecting the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Garden with the Monsanto green corridor, including a thousand trees, recreational and leisure areas, pedestrian paths, playgrounds, a cycle path, and three bike-sharing stations.
According to the municipality, the park’s name is a posthumous tribute to landscape architect Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles, a mentor of several proposals and projects that helped transform Lisbon into a greener, more ecological, and sustainable city.
The building intended for the cafe remained closed and was used outside by the homeless; however, in March, the municipality fenced the area to prevent further vandalism of the site.
Today’s vote garnered support from the “Novos Tempos” coalition (PSD/CDS-PP/MPT/PPM/Aliança), PS, Livre, and Cidadãos Por Lisboa (elected by the PS/Livre coalition), with abstentions from the PCP and BE, according to an official source from the municipality.
In a note sent to Lusa, the elected representatives of Cidadãos Por Lisboa highlighted that “it was not for lack of warning, but more than three years passed where the degradation of Ribeiro Telles Park became evident, and the lack of support structures for the population to fully enjoy this green space.”
According to the local officials, “there is no justification for the delay,” in light of the PSD/CDS-PP executive’s proposal to launch the public auction for the kiosk’s operation at the end of the term—”which was ready and remained closed all this time.”
The executive also approved two other proposals from the president and the Economy and Innovation councilor, Diogo Moura (CDS-PP), for the public auction of kiosks with terraces at Largo São Sebastião da Pedreira, in the Avenidas Novas parish, and at Parada do Alto de São João, in the Penha de França parish, requalified under the “A Square in Every Neighborhood” program.
The intervention in Largo de São Sebastião da Pedreira, which also extends to the surrounding area of the São Sebastião da Pedreira, Augusto Santos, Dr. António Cândido, Marquês Sá da Bandeira, Nicolau Bettencourt, and Filipe Folque streets, aimed at “a commitment between a functionally structured traffic solution and a notable pedestrian public space.”
The requalification “allows for the reading of the square as a whole, highlighting the building frontage from the Church of São Sebastião da Pedreira to the Sá da Bandeira and Vilalva Palace, providing greater public space and commercial terraces area around the square and on Augusto dos Santos street,” the proposal specifies, with the kiosk’s starting bid for beverage establishment set at 1,000 euros.
The requalification of the exterior spaces of Parada do Alto de S. João, “guided by the demands of environmental and aesthetic balance, safety, and fluidity of vehicle and pedestrian traffic, contributing to creating a local and city identity,” includes the concession for the operation of a kiosk intended for beverage establishment with a terrace, with a starting bid of 1,000 euros.
