Cascais

Cascais is a charming seaside town 30 km from Lisbon. From its humble beginnings as a quiet fishing village, Cascais developed into an elegant and cosmopolitan seaside resort in the 19th century, attracting members of the European royalty and nobility. Today, the Municipality of Cascais is one of the wealthiest in Portugal, topping the charts in municipal taxes per capital after the Algarve and Lisbon and is consistently ranked highly for its overall quality of life. It is also an important touristic and event destination.

Similar to other town centers in Portugal, and in spite of its heritage and affluence, the street retail offering in Cascais has been slow to adapt to the emergence of shopping centers and the town center progressively lost its appeal. While in the 1980s and 1990s its elegant multi-brand boutiques and trendy swimwear stores attracted the affluent shopper (including from Lisbon), today few unique contemporary retail concepts survive. The street fronts are filled with bland retail outlets such as banks, real estate agents, hairdressers and mini-supermarkets together with tourist-focused restaurants and souvenir shops.

Bring vitality to the historic center with superior contemporary retailers, a modern office and learning community and a fashionable, more diverse evening offering.

In order to regain its appeal and charm, we envision Cascais re focusing its retail offering on its residents. Tourist offerings will continue, but become increasingly differentiated and innovative. Street retail should offer a unique shopping and lifestyle experience, which shall be radically different from a CascaiShopping visit and more convenient than travelling to Lisbon. Urban Fabric intends to be a catalyst at the forefront of improving and differentiating the retail offering in Cascais.

For the initial set of concepts to survive, 3 conditions are indispensable:

Critical mass of original high-quality stores, restaurants and bars at reasonable rents.

Populate historic center with day-residents by offering attractive educational and office space.

Establish a dedicated specialised local team to assemble exciting tenants, attract investment and successfully execute.

Urban Fabric has acquired a 1,100 sq.m. retail space in Av. Valbom (BeWe) in 2019 and is gradually increasing its commercial portfolio in Cascais through acquisitions or management contracts. In January 2021, we got the award for the concession of 6 municipal assets, all located in the historic center of Cascais, as a first step in the implementation of this strategy.