Hub Criativo do Beato is an innovation center for creative and technological companies which is emerging in a complex of decommissioned factories, on the eastern riverside front of Lisboa.
This former industrial area of the Portuguese Army, formerly known as the Manutenção Militar (Military Maintenance), was where flours, pasta, bread, biscuits and other cereal products were manufactured. Now it is getting ready to host over again 3 thousand people from around the world who want to produce innovation.
Strategically located between the city historical center and the modern area of Parque das Nações, on the riverside, the Lisboa City Council envisioned the 3 hectares of the former Manutenção Militar factories in the Beato neighborhood as a unique opportunity to accelerate development and enhance urban, economic and cultural regeneration in this part of the city, which during the 20th century hosted significant industrial activity which over the last decades has left the city, leaving behind a socially and economically disadvantaged area.
In 2016, the local authority put forward a proposal to the Government, which aimed to transfer of the right of use of the southern wing of that Portuguese Army industrial complex - which had reached its climax during the Colonial War and which had been deactivated for more than a decade - to fit it into its city economy and innovation strategy and transform it into a focal point for the promotion of entrepreneurship and creativity, deeply intertwined with local dynamics, and that would add the best practices in terms of digital, technological and creative industries in Portugal and worldwide. And so was born the Hub Criativo do Beato project, the building of a new centrality in the city, a concept of hub to attract companies and people "who position Lisboa definitively as an open, entrepreneurial, innovative and creative city".
The concept assumes a very concrete vision for the role of the HCB: to enhance the city as an international entrepreneurship hub without draining the existing dynamics, functioning as a pole to attract and retain new talent, new projects and new players, to add value to the community and the country. The HCB is being built in such a way as to provide working areas in harmony with leisure areas, differentiated services and ongoing cultural programming. Aligned with the best environmental sustainability practices and preservation of its industrial heritage, and inserted in the urban network and the community, its ultimate goal is to instill interaction between different types of people and industries, thus creating a dynamic, innovative and creative community. When the requalification is completed.

The HCB will be one of the largest entrepreneurship hubs in Europe, with about 50 thousand square meters distributed over 18 buildings, estimated to create 3 thousand new jobs among the companies that will occupy the space, along with the jobs created with the commercial dynamics that will respond to the needs of the new structure.

The project has already captured some global companies such as Factory, one of the largest European incubators (with Berlin origins); the Super Bock Group, with a space to promote the creative industries and a craft brewery - Browers Beato; Delta Cafés; and Startup Lisboa itself. These entities’ projects come to consolidate the four axes envisioned for the HCB: entrepreneurship, Creative Industries, Innovation and knowledge, startups, Scale ups and Global Companies.