UK-based advisor and asset management firm SF Investment Management has overseen the three-year rehabilitation of a 200-year-old historic building in Lisbon and subsequent lease agreement between The Inditex Group and Rossio Pombalino S.A.
Since February 2018, Rossio Pombalino S.A. has invested over €100 million in the acquisition and rehabilitation of this flagship building and Lisbon landmark, which included repair and strengthening of original pombaline walls and staircases, a completely new roof, repainted frescos, recreated stucco ceilings, repaired original fixtures and the restoration by hand of over 20,000 original azulejo tiles from the 18th century. The company is 100% owned by an international family office who hold this asset as part of a diversified portfolio of financial investments and real estate ventures.
Rossio Pombalino represents the Inditex Group’s new strategy of larger flagship physical stores, providing a unique experience to store visitors and customers, containing the full range of its collections and accompanying with better logistics and technology.
Richard Gabelich, co-manager of the development and CEO of SF Investment Management who advises the owner:
“We are very pleased with the agreement with the Inditex Group, managing to maintain the balance between the modern future, represented by the brand of an international fashion retail leader and which has a privileged operational relationship with Iberia, and maintaining the Pombaline characteristics that we jointly wanted to preserve. This is an excellent opportunity for Zara to come and energise the most noble area in the heart of the city of Lisbon and brings a world class long term partner appropriate to the super prime nature of the location”
The project involved a broad and careful rehabilitation operation of one of the most well-known spaces in Lisbon, once partially occupied by Pastelaria Suiça. This has resulted in an exemplary initiative to safeguard the heritage, creating conditions for the installation of a modern store and adapted to the current time, but preserving the identity and all the architectural elements relevant to the existing construction.
In keeping with this sympathetic restoration, Richard Gabelich adds:
“The historic tea and coffee shop ‘Pérola do Rossio’ remains as an integral part of ‘Rossio Pombalino’, under the management of the original family who celebrated 100 years in 2023 and ensuring the preservation of the historical memory of the building.”
The rehabilitation of the building has maintained other key historically significant elements of architectural and patrimonial value such as the historic store ‘Manteigaria União’. It is this mixture of architectural and commercial elements that give the recreated space the mark of a contemporary intervention.
