The history of this family company is long, full of challenges and full of resilience...
Without a doubt, a very rich history, creating places where new stories begin. FERCOPOR’s story begins with Alberto Ferreira da Costa, a native of Vila do Conde who went to Brazil, where he found success in the construction and property development sector, creating Rio Ave. Later on, the Ferreira da Costa family created FERCOPOR, which took its first steps in construction in Portugal in the early 1980s. The Ferreira da Costa family is still part of FERCOPOR’s management today, in a clear union of both sides of the Atlantic. The family’s origins justify FERCOPOR’s dedication to Vila do Conde, where we have several projects (Conceito VC 55, concepto VC Parque, Concepto VC Jardim and Casa Verde).
However - and curiously - the beginning of our history was also in Boavista, in Oporto, where we built the first building in 1986. I say ‘curiously’ because we ended up returning to Boavista decades later and made it a strategic focus of the company. In recent years, we’ve launched several developments that aim to contribute to recovering the nobility of this area in Oporto. After the Soul project (Bessa Leite), Enlight (Avenida da Boavista) and Pure (Rua Ciríaco Cardoso), we’re preparing a launch that will be the most ambitious project we’ve ever done and (once again, curiously) it stands opposite the building we built in 1986. It’s symbolic, but it shows the path we’ve taken and the progress we’ve made over more than 40 years.
In the company’s portfolio you can find completed projects that have become landmarks in their locations (real sales successes) and others (under construction) that we believe will follow the same path. Can you tell us about them?
In fact, all our projects - whether built or under construction - have become real sales successes, as they are fully sold while they are still on the drawing board. It’s a privilege to be able to say that, but in fact, we are really being very well received by the market.In Vila do Conde, the «Conceito» trio (VC 55, VC Parque and VC Jardim) is fully sold and only Conceito VC Jardim is under construction. The three projects share the same ambition of bringing modern architecture to the city centre, without forgetting the connection to nature that Vila do Conde provides, namely through its proximity to the sea. Also, in Vila do Conde, we have Casa Verde under construction, a particularly significant project because it is part of an iconic building in the city. We have kept the name by which it was known and we are recovering the original Casa Verde, but we have added three new and modern buildings to the development.
In Boavista, we have FERCOPOR’s most recent venture, also translated into a first trio of projects: Soul, Enlight and Pure. All are currently under construction, sharing what we consider to be the desirable balance of creating an experience in this part of the city that is, on the one hand, cosmopolitan (close to all services and main access roads), but also private, with large areas and good openings to the outside, designed for peaceful family living.
The next step, also in relation to Boavista, will be, as I was saying, the most ambitious project we have developed so far. Located at the crossroads between Avenida da Boavista and Rua António Cardoso, the project is designed by Ventura Partners and will feature around 70 apartments - a much greater dimension than the others. The image of this project will also be very striking, so we believe we are creating an iconic building on this avenue.
Still with regard to Pure, what can this new luxury development in Oporto, which represented an investment of 18 million Euros, bring back to the city?
In concrete terms, Pure is made up of three three-storey buildings, interconnected by landscaped roads. However, Pure goes far beyond this concrete side of a real estate development. In fact, the project got its name precisely because of the inspiring dimension it exudes, which comes from art - a dimension that we believe is the distinguishing factor. On the façade, the influence of Piet Mondrian’s famous paintings is clearly visible in the simple, pure forms, very much based on symmetry and the exactness of the lines. To these, architect José Carlos Cruz added the humanised side of architecture: a close relationship with the city’s surroundings and nature, very much characterised by the privacy of each unit.
«We will soon be launching the first of two projects in the Algarve»