New hotel for Santa Apolónia opens in 2021

Works began over the summer for a new hotel in the building that houses Lisbon’s Santa Apolónia station on the Tagus estuary riverfront not far from the city’s cruise ship terminal.
The project should be completed and ready to welcome guests by the summer of 2021 after a €12 million investment.

The project entails transforming part of the station into a four star hotel with 125 rooms from developer Capital The House Ribeira from the Sonae Group which won the competition tender launched by Infraestruturas de Portugal. The project will be designed by architects Miguel Saraiva.
According to the government body, “The hotel envisages the occupation of non-essential spaces to providing the railway services and will not interfere with the station’s operations.”
The project is also part of a plan to turn the surrounding area into a prime city site which has enormous potential for tourism. The façade of the building will remain unaltered but will be restored.
The news that Sonae Capital was to “create a hotel within the station premises was first broken in January 2019, stating that the investment was part of its strategy to increase its presence in Lisbon, Portugal’s prime tourist destination, through a development located in a city centre area with high potential”.
“The new hotel will allow Sonae Capital to explore synergies between its various hotels and destinations, effectively meeting the needs of its clients who want to explore Portugal’s two main cities and benefit from a unique beach and congress destination which is the case with Tróia.”