Vanguard announces new projects at perfume launch
One of Portugal’s largest luxury real estate development companies, Vanguard Properties, has announced developments in several of its ambitious property projects in Portugal.
The developer is to build 400 homes for the construction workers and employees that will work at the luxury rural seaside community at Comporta near Alcaçer do Sal in the Alentejo which has already been branded as the ‘Hamptons of Portugal.’
The Comporta estate officially became the property of Vanguard on 14 November in a consortium with Amorim Luxury.
“A lot has been said about Comporta but job creation for locals who will work there and construction site workers tends to be overlooked” said the Director-General of Vanguard Properties, José Carlos Botelho.
“We are currently buying plots of land at Grândola in Alcácer do Sal to build houses for the people who will work on the site” said Botelho.
The Comporta project will involve a €1.5Bn investment in the long term on land dubbed the ‘Terras da Comporta’. “We are already working on the project and right now we are improving the infrastructures of Comporta Dunes and Comporta Links” he added of the two main assets which belong to the Herdade da Comporta Closed Fund which covers 916 hectares.
“We hope that the infrastructures will be completed over the next two and a half years” he said going on to explain how at Comporta Dunes near Carvalhal a golf course which will have 18 holes is already under construction in a project designed by the famous Portuguese architect Souto Mouro on an outline project that had already been devised by the collapsed Espírito Santo Group (GES) which owned the land via a holding called Rioforte.
Comporta Links, which is near to Comporta beach behind a restaurant, GES had planned to build a 36-hole competition golf course designed by the golf course designer Tom Fazio where the Ryder Cup would be held. Now Vanguard has scaled down the project for an 18-hole golf course as well as the Comporta Dunes course which will be developed from scratch.
“We will found the first great golf academy in Portugal with the help of João Zilhão with whom we have a partnership in the Millennium Estoril Open” said Botelho. João Zilhão organises the largest Portuguese tennis tournament through a company called 3 Love of which he is a partner.
The project updates announced on Wednesday also coincided with the launch of a classy and sophisticated new unisex perfume which conjures up the sights, sounds and scents of the three principal areas in which many of its projects are found: Lisbon, the Alentejo and the Algarve.
‘Vanguard Eau de Parfum Pour Ambiances Exclusives’ is the name of the scent specially designed for Vanguard by top Portuguese perfumer Lourenço Lucena who said his brief was to create “an olfactory identity” of Vanguard Properties which has projects in Lisbon, Comporta (Alentejo – Alcáçer do Sal) and in the Algarve.
Lourenço Lucena said that the perfume was based on three different scents made with nearly 80 ingredients which represent “the city, beach and countryside”.
From now on, all the actual properties and premises of Vanguard will be scented with the exclusive perfume.
Lourenço Lucena is the only Portuguese perfumer who is a member of the prestigious French Perfume Society (Société Française de Parfums) and who was given the challenge by Vanguard Properties Sales Manager Ana Magalhães.
The idea behind the perfume was to create an “olfactory identity” for Vanguard Properties. “It was my most difficult challenge over the 13 years of my career,” said Lourenço Lucena. “We are communicating a brand which will be used by a lot of people” he said.
Initially, the eau de perfum was created as a room scent for use in Vanguard Properties building projects such as Castilho 203, Infinity and ‘A’ Tower in Lisbon.
“The perfume will be in all the Vanguard building projects, offices, sales stands and show apartments” says Ana Magalhães.
“The scent will now not just be exclusively for the company, its premises and clients, but will be sold to the public in ‘bouteilles’ (perfume bottles) of 50 ml for between €100 and €120,” said Lourenço Lucena where it will be for sale in a niche perfume shop in Lisbon.
Vanguard Properties also commissioned a piece of music which reflects not only the environments in which its projects are represented, particularly the sound of sea rolling on beach shingle and the calls of seagulls but also echoes of the sounds of building sites . The drills, the hammers, the sound of cement and plaster being trowelled onto walls which will be the brand’s signature soundtrack.
Vanguard Properties was founded in 2016 by French property developer Claude Berda and Portuguese business partner developer José Cardoso Botelho.
“We have always been careful in how we project the brand’s image and way in which we communicate,” said José Carlos Botelho.
“From the very beginning it was really important for us to create a brand that would be well known, not just in the real estate development sector but also to the general public” he added.
The music called ‘Vanguard Unique Melody’ was created by a band called ‘The Sensorialists’ of which Lourenço Lucena is a member and which was created in partnership with brand specialists BLUG.