• 3 min de lectura
• 3 min de lectura
Brazil's Grupo Peralta, a prominent supermarket and shopping mall developer, plans a mega-ship terminal that would bolster the cruise capacity of nearby Santos.
The R$1b ($200m) Litoral Plaza Port would go up at Litoral Plaza Shopping, one of the country's 10 largest shopping centers, located in Praia Grande, a city 19 kilometers/12 miles from Santos. The double-berth pier would be able to handle ships of nearly Icon of the Seas' size.
Litoral Plaza Port is intended to complement the existing cruise operation in Santos, with the developers citing studies that point to growing cruise demand in the region.
Praia Grande, the fourth most-visited city in Brazil, according to the Ministry of Tourism, is directly connected to São Paulo by major highways and located approximately 50 minutes (70 kilometers/43 miles) from São Paulo's Congonhas Airport, which mainly handles high-frequency domestic flights.
The cruise terminal would be part of a lifestyle center that consists of an enclosed mall with integrated outdoor areas. Litoral Plaza Shopping, with 90,000 square meters/970,000 square feet of gross leasable area, includes retail, leisure areas and, in development, a Hampton by Hilton. Key tenants include a Hard Rock Cafe and Brazil's largest licensed Disney store.
Future projects include a village-style hotel to house tourists and Santos Football Club staff as well as a sports training center for Santos FC in partnership with Neymar Sport & Marketing.
Litoral Plaza Port would be exclusively dedicated to cruise operations, with the pier is designed to handle ships two ships of up to 362 meters/1,188 feet with draft of 9 meters/29.5 feet and 228,081gt. (Icon of the Seas measures nearly 365 meters/1,198 feet and 250,800gt.)
The terminal would be located in the shopping mall complex with a tunnel connecting to the pier.
The facility is being designed to handle a high volume of embarkations and disembarkations, with estimated annual capacity for approximately 1.3m passenger movements, operating year-round. The terminal is planned to simultaneously accommodate two ships carrying approximately 6,000 passengers and 2,000 crew each.
The proposed R$1b investment envisions a partnership/joint venture structure. According to Grupo Peralta, preliminary conversations are underway with groups interested in participating; no agreement has been finalized.
It is estimated coastal and marine works will take approximately 36 months to complete once final approvals are received.
The project has been submitted to Brazil's Ministry of Ports and Airports. It has obtained the federal water-area authorization from Brazil's Secretariat for Federal Assets (SPU), authorization from the Federal Revenue Service and clearance from Companhia Ambiental do Estado de São Paulo (the state's primary environmental agency) to continue the environmental licensing process. In addition, project review is under way with the relevant federal authorities including the agency regulating waterway transportation.
Fuente: sea-trade cruise
