A PORTUGUESE cultural hub is to be set up in a former nightclub next month.
Gilberto Franco, managing director of Hampton Estates, has high hopes for the site, which formerly housed the nightclub ROJO, on Beresford Street.
The club closed at the end of July after nearly two decades of entertaining Islanders.
The cultural hub will feature “down-to-earth” food, dancing, sport, music, language lessons and more, according to Mr Franco.
Mr Franco, and co-funder Duarte Fernandes, of Sonnic Support Solutions, have purchased the property.
With the help of other Portuguese Islanders they intend to realise a long-held ambition to establish a “Centro Culturale Desportivo Portugues [Portuguese Cultural and Sports Centre]”.
Mr Franco, who is from Funchal and moved to the Island 54 years ago as a 23-year-old, showed the JEP around the site.
Renovations were already under way to freshen coats of paint and brighten the space, which he hopes can open within a month.
Mr Franco said that the ground floor would offer food, drink and televisions that will show Portuguese channels and football matches – and there will be dancing and occasional music and guitar performances.
A multi-functional space upstairs is to host sports – snooker and football – teams, and Mr Franco said there were teachers interested in using it to give lessons in the Portuguese language during quieter afternoon periods.
Another Portuguese Islander who runs kick-boxing classes for young people is also interested in using the space, he added.
“I felt a central hub was missing,” Mr Franco told the JEP.
“For years we have felt the community needed somewhere decent to promote the gastronomy, the dances and the culture.
“It has been very difficult to find a suitable premises, but this site came up and I was mad enough to say ‘let’s go for it’, which is a headache, because it needs a lot changing to make it suitable for us.”
Mr Franco added: “There used to be a club [for Portuguese Islanders], but it was very rough, so I want to have a free members’ card, so that if they do not behave, then their card will be taken away.
“I want it to be family friendly.”
He said the space would be a way for people to connect with their Portuguese roots and keep their heritage alive.
He added: “We also want to promote sports, and invite all the football teams, snooker teams, all sports, to become part of the CCDP. Most important is I want to bring families together, especially the younger generation of Portuguese Islanders.
“We also have a nice group of young ladies who play football, and I want them to use the premises for talking about and watching sport as much as the young men who play sport.”
He explained that it was essential that enjoying the space was affordable, adding: “I want to have some quality Portuguese food there, so that people can come and have a reasonably priced meal.
“It is forbidden these days to go to a restaurant because the prices are so mad, so my intention is to create homemade, down-to-earth food that people can have without having to obtain a mortgage to pay for the bill.”
His children, both of whom are teachers in the UK, are coming over to the Island to help bring his ideas to life.
But he needs other help too, and is appealing to the Portuguese community, especially its affluent members, to contribute to the renovations and the huge effort it will take to open the CCDP.
“Without the support of everybody, I cannot do it,” he said, explaining that some of the hub’s unique items would need to be ordered from Portugal.
He added that there were also plans to apply for government funding and to make contact with the Constable of St Helier, Simon Crowcroft, and Deputy Carina Alves, the Island’s first politician of Portuguese descent.
“I want to leave a legacy; I want to leave something for people to remember me by, which is having co-funded the premises,” Mr Franco said.
“It’s a mad thing, and very difficult to achieve, but we will get there, and I have never shied away from responsibility. I’ve made so many mistakes in my life, but I keep going, so this is just another adventure.”
