Beyond the potential opportunities stemming from obvious parallels with Sydney’s Darling Harbour/Cockle Bay and Melbourne’s Docklands redevelopments, the Rio project also provides attractive investment potential and the city council is already spruiking the benefits to international groups.
At an infrastructure conference at Rio’s Sheraton hotel just last week, Rio´s chief counsellor on economic matters, Felipe Góes, whose role since 2008 has been to develop Rio’s potential as an international business and investment destination, explained that the Porto Maravilha project is already up and running, with the two phase redevelopment process to take another 5-6 years, running right up to the 2016 Olympics. Phase 1, which involves the bulk of public remediation and infrastructure works to the area, will run until mid 2012, with the private investment driven Phase 2 to run up until 2016.
With most of the land in the area currently owned by the government, the sale of selected parcels through an auction process will help pay for the infrastructure works, with significant property, transaction and services tax exemptions of up to 10 years being offered to incentivise investors up until the end of 2012.
Key aims for the project include to ensure a lasting legacy from the 2016 Games, to balance the city´s real estate market between the currently booming Barra region in the south west and the long-neglected CBD and surrounds, to reduce urban infrastructure costs for the city given the port region already features many of the basic requirements, and, for the Olympics, to provide a spectacular setting for the world´s media during the two week period.
Please contact Austrade in Sao Paulo for more details of opportunities for Australian business in Rio de Janeiro.
