The agreements on the sale of the Galeb and Lido hotels from 2006, by which the Government obliged the buyers to build new ones instead of the demolished hotels, are still in force.
This was confirmed by the "News" in the Ministry of Economic Development (MER).
From the department led by Minister Jakov Milatović, they said that in the coming period they will monitor activities to create preconditions for the valorization of the locations where the Galeb and Lido hotels used to be.
The company Rokšped bought Galeb on September 5, 2006, for 5,75 million euros.
In the basic contract, the buyer undertook to invest 15,4 million euros in the hotel and that it has five stars.
The first investment year was supposed to start in January 2007, and the new Galeb was supposed to welcome its first guests at the beginning of 2009.
In the meantime, the hotel was demolished, and Rokšped announced the construction of a new luxury building with five stars, for which even today there is no foundation stone.
The new owner sold the complete inventory and fittings from the old Galeb, while the concrete remains of the hotel ended up near the watchtower on Bojana.
Planning documentation was missing
The MER explained that the reason for the non-fulfillment of contractual obligations was the failure to deliver planning documentation and the impossibility of registering ownership of real estate from LN 4488 KO Ulcinj, which includes the location of the former Galeb Hotel.
Therefore, at the request of Rokšped, an administrative procedure was conducted before the Real Estate Administration of PJ Ulcinj to convert the right of use into the right of ownership.
The Ministry said that the procedure ended in July of last year, when Rocksped was registered with the right of ownership of the real estate in question.
"Previously, the Ministry of Sustainable Development in cooperation with the Secretariat for Development Projects, now the Agency for Investments, intensively implemented activities in order to ultimately valorize that location. In this regard, and with the aim of a comprehensive analysis of the state and status of the Galeb sales contract, the Ministry hired a controller who, during 2019, prepared a report on the fulfillment of contractual obligations, stating the entire problem from the moment the contract was signed," they told MER.
In accordance with the report, they added in MER, further negotiations with Rokšpeda were started, which were blocked because in that period the procedure for determining ownership rights was being conducted.
"The contract for the sale of the Galeb Hotel is still in force. The Ministry, in cooperation with the Investment Agency, the controller and other involved institutions, i.e., the protector of property and legal interests and HTP Ulcinj Riviera, will inform the Government in the coming period and, in accordance with the Government's decisions, will formulate further action towards the buyer", said the MER.
It is still unclear how and in what way Rokšped cheated the contract with the Government for the second time regarding the deadline for building the hotel. As Vijesti already announced, the first annex to the contract was concluded in 2008, but none of the deadlines were respected.
At the beginning of 2013, the assistant minister of tourism, Olivera Brajović, told "Vijesta" that the annex to the contract that will be offered to Rokšpede specified that the company from Podgorica must apply to the competent ministry for the issuance of a construction permit no later than September 15 of that year.
"The main construction works on the construction of the 'Seagull' must begin by October 1, 2013 at the latest, and the hotel must be built and put into operation by the end of April 2016 at the latest," Brajović said then.
Rokšped recently announced the sale of an attractive plot of land on Pinješ, which officially gave up investing in the construction of a new hotel, which does not mean that the future buyer will not inherit the obligations from the contract with the Government.
Port Milena halted the construction of Lido
When it comes to the Lido hotel, MER announced that the prerequisites for the start of the investment will be created only at the end of this year.
They reminded that in accordance with the contract from 2006, the investor "Capital Estate" was obliged to implement an investment program in a hotel with villas in the amount of 37.957.000 euros and bring it to the level of 5 stars, and that the location was included in the location study "Port Milena", which was adopted in January 2010.
MER said that the investor was not able to register as the owner of real estate for several years, even though the tender process clearly indicated that the objects of sale were the buildings and the land in the function of the hotel.
"During 2012, Annex III was signed, according to which the beginning of pre-investment obligations is conditional on solving at least 30% of the environmental problem of Port Milena, while the beginning of the investment obligations of "Capital Estate" is conditional on solving at least 75% of the environmental problem of the Port Milena canal," explained the MER - in.
The canal problem will be partially solved by building a sewer network for the settlements that gravitate around the Port Milena canal.
That contract was concluded in September 2019, it is worth 3,36 million euros with a deadline of 365 days, but the coronavirus pandemic postponed the works.
"The current project envisages the construction of an 11,9 km long fecal sewage network and a 1,8 km long atmospheric sewage network. "Due to the pandemic caused by the coronavirus, the deadline for the completion of the works has been moved to the end of October this year, which is why the prerequisite for the continuation of the planned investment has not yet been fulfilled," MER pointed out.
They note that for that contract, the previous ministry engaged a controller who performed control of the observed contractual obligations according to the provisions that the investor could realistically fulfill.
"Because as we mentioned, the preconditions for the start of investment have not yet been created. In the coming period, the Ministry will continue to intensively monitor activities to create preconditions in order to valorize the site in question in an adequate way, through the valorization of which various benefits will be realized", said the Ministry.
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