The revision of the Municipal Master Plan (PDM) of Matosinhos that will allow the construction of the technological innovation centre "Fuse Valley", in Leça do Balio, enters public consultation this Thursday, according to a publication today in the Diário da República. The deadline for submitting suggestions and requests for clarification is 15 working days
Photo: Artur Machado/Global Imagens
The Matosinhos City Hall explains, as stated in the notice in the Diário da República, that this procedure starts the second alteration of the first revision of the PDM, and it concerns an area where the technological innovation centre "Fuse Valley" will be built.
This development will be built in Leça do Balio, Matosinhos, with 140,000 square metres, of which 60,000 will be occupied by Farfetch (a luxury fashion platform), according to information from the municipality. On March 16, in Cannes, France, the executive director of Castro Group, the company responsible for creating "Fuse Valley", said that the work should begin "this year", and that all the facilities should be completed by 2030.
In the notice, the local authority says that this change results from the "significant modification of the economic and social development perspectives that underpin the options defined in the plan for the intervention area in question, and aims to update the PDM options in the area that was the object of partial suspension.
It is also referred that the City Hall "determined that it is not necessary to prepare a Strategic Environmental Assessment (...) because the undertaking in question has already obtained a favourable environmental impact statement" and because "this is a small area of municipal territory".
Those interested in making suggestions and requests for clarification should address, by request, to the Mayor of Matosinhos, Luísa Salgueiro.
The communications should be presented at the Town Hall services, sent by registered mail to the address of the Town Hall or by email to the address mail@cm-matosinhos.pt.
On November 11th, also according to a publication in the Diário da República, it was made public that the Matosinhos City Hall has partially suspended, for two years, the PDM. "The proposal to suspend the plan is thus essential, as otherwise the realisation of a project of relevant importance for the municipality will become unfeasible", said the local authority.
The council estimates that this project will create 12,000 qualified jobs in the tertiary and information technology sector, and that the "significant" job creation will contribute to the eventual establishment of new residents.
Besides this, and also according to city hall information, the project materialises, through private investment, the requalification of the Chantre junction - the entrance to the municipality of Matosinhos from the centre of Maia - and promotes new accesses from the EN13 to the municipal urban network.
In addition, the cession of land for green areas for collective use (around 4.5 hectares on the banks of the river Leça), through the cession of land foreseen in the project, will allow the framing and connection of the Parque da Paz and the Leça Green Corridor (bicycle path) with the surrounding area.
In Cannes, on the sidelines of the MIPIM international real estate event, the managing director of the Castro Group, Paulo Castro, said he estimated that between the second half of 2026 and January 2027 the first phase of the project, budgeted at around 200 million euros (investment shared with Farfetch), would be concluded.
The two remaining phases of the project should be completed between 2027 and 2030.
The technological innovation centre "Fuse Valley" will consist of 24 buildings that will house offices, housing, a hotel and several services.
A "substantial" part of the offices will be occupied by Farfetch, while the hotel will have 70 rooms and occupy an area of 12,000 square metres, where several common spaces are planned, such as rooms for events, conferences, coworking spaces and a spa.