Instead of the Montenegrin coast being adorned with new hotels in the best locations, problematic sales, carelessness of the authorities and actions that followed the privatizations of Buraz, there are only ruins in those places.
Only in Ulcinj, the Galeb, Lido and Jadran hotels are in ruins, the As hotel in Perazić is a concrete skeleton, the Fjord in Kotor is nothing left, and the three hotels of the Hotel-Tourist Company (HTP) Boka in Herceg Novi are in ruins.
The Plavi horizonti hotel in Pržna bay near Tivat was also demolished, as was the Mimoza hotel in that town, and the construction of new ones has not started.
There is no solution for Jezera na Žabljak, of which only a skeleton remains, and the Planinka hotel is also closed, planned for demolition.
Although the unrenovated ones were of a lower category, these hotels once contributed significantly to the tourist offer.
Professor at the Budva Faculty of Business and Tourism and former Minister of Tourism Ivo Armenko for CIN-CG it is said that the state did not provide in these cases and now there are endless court cases.
As the hotels were in a bad condition, more important than the price, as he believes, was their reconstruction and to get a higher category, which is what happened to Avala in Budva, complexes in Bečići, Maestral, Sveti Stefan...
Armenko believes that the state should take away these wastes and ruins, or force the investor to bring them to their intended purpose and get rid of the "miracle that spoils the view", as in Petrovac where several concrete blocks are not finished.
The Ministry of Economic Development told CIN-CG that for Boka, the proceedings are before the Commercial Court, and for Lido, they are "undertaking the necessary activities with the relevant institutions in order to resolve the status of the property and begin the valorization of the locations".
They remind that for the location of the former Hotel Jadran, the contract was signed by Morsko dobro and Star of Montenegro, while for Galeb "intense communication" is underway with interested parties in order to solve the problem.
IDEAL DESTINATION
FOR HUNTING IN MUTNO Architect Ružica Draginić from the KANA group reminds that they opposed the demolition of the hotel, and especially the Mimosa in Tivat, for which the initiative to protect it as a cultural asset was accepted.
"We hope that the attitude towards our legacy will change with the arrival of new people in the relevant institutions," said Draginić for CIN-CG.
Conservationist architect Aleksandra Kapetanović from the NGO Expeditio assessed that the demolition, including the Hotel Crna Gora in Podgorica, shows that the interests of individuals are above the public.
Hotel Ljubović, a cult place, which the people of Podgorica remember even though its name was changed to City, was demolished in 2019 in order to build apartments.
Kapetanović says that this means that the state does not recognize and protect a significant segment of cultural heritage whose value has been confirmed at the international level.
Director of the MANS Research Center, Dejan Milovac, told CIN-CG that the privatization of the tourism sector was predominantly carried out through contracts with problematic clauses, numerous annexes that changed the essence.
"It is clear that the investor benefited the most from such a practice, but the question arises as to what was the motivation of certain ministers and other officials to tolerate such a situation for years," Milovac said.
The key role, he says, was played by the prosecutor's office, which until now has not completed the investigation for any major case of privatization where there was suspicion of corruption, or some other violation of the law, which promoted Montenegro as an ideal destination for "hunting in the dark".
AS AND "VISUALLY GOOD" GUARANTEE
Hotel As in Perazića dola is one of the biggest privatization failures of the former government.
The huge unfinished building has stood empty for years, surrounded by scaffolding, one of which has already fallen.
The abandoned faucet is rusted and overgrown with grass.
In 2002, the Budva Riviera sold As, villas and land by the sea to the Montenegrin-Russian company Nega tours for five million marks. The buyer undertook to invest 22 million marks in the hotel, part of which he demolished in order to expand it, and to open it by the end of 2003.
Then in 2006, the customer received a building permit to build a part of the hotel with 17 floors and then changed the project, with which he planned the total investment to be as much as 110 million euros and announced the construction of a marina, helipad, casino... He moved the construction deadline to May 2015. he tried to secure a loan, which he failed to do.
The Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism then initiated the procedure for terminating the contract and collecting a bank guarantee of three million euros, which turned out to be false.
Neđeljko Gardašević, a member of the board of directors of Nega tours, was arrested in March of last year and his trial began for abuse of authority in the economy.
At the end of January of this year, he denied in the High Court that he had given an invalid bank guarantee.
In this case, many called out former Minister of Tourism Branimir Gvozdenović, and he said in April in the High Court, as a witness, that the bank guarantee of Sberbank met the visual requirement and that it had a hologram of the bank, as well as that there was no verification procedure at that time.
ULCINJ HAS BEEN WAITING FOR THREE NEW HOTELS FOR MORE THAN A DECADE
"One of the unsuccessful examples is the privatization of hotels in Ulcinj, Galeb, Grand Lido and Lido Apartments, as well as the location of the former Hotel Jadran," said the then Minister of Tourism Pavle Radulović in the Parliament in 2017.
The Podgorica company Rokšped, owned by the Stanaj family, bought the Hotel Galeb from the Ulcinj Riviera for 5,75 million euros in 2006 and undertook to invest about 15,4 million euros in the reconstruction in two years.
The hotel was demolished in 2008, and there is now a parking lot in that place, not far from Stari Ulcinj.
According to the report of the Secretariat for Development Projects for the year 2013, the first problem was the delay of the local administration and planning documents, and then Rokšped had no money, so in 2016 a mutual termination of the contract was initiated.
It turned out that Rokšped took a loan from NLB Bank, which mortgaged the land, for 2,5 million euros, which was checked by the Special State Prosecutor's Office in 2017.
In November 2017, criminal charges were filed against several state and local officials, due to the suspicion that during the sale of Galeb, they damaged the state by more than one million euros.
In the end, only the director and clerk of the Ulcinj cadastre, Dževdet Čaprić and Smilja Šunjevarić and former notary Anđelko Milošević, were accused, and the trial is ongoing.
In September of last year, after the former government withdrew the lawsuit against the company, Rokšped registered as the owner of the plot where Galeb was located, and then announced the sale at the beginning of March.
ADRIATIC - REPTILES
AND THE BIRDS ARE THE ONLY GUESTS In 30, Morsko dobro concluded a 25-year lease of 2008 square meters on the Ratislava (Suka) peninsula with the company Star of Montenegro, owned by "Montenegro 2000 consulting and development company", (founder Danilo Durutović). and the remaining five percent is owned by Morsko dobro, based on the assignment of the right of use and monetary contribution.
The price of renting the location of the former Hotel Jadran, which was demolished in the 1979 earthquake, is one euro per square meter, and the tenant has committed to invest 33 million euros.
The works did not start even after three annexes to the contract, nor after the relocation of 13 families who lived there after the 1979 earthquake.
From Morski dobr, they told CIN-CG that the procedure for termination of the contract, payment of compensation for the use of marine property and release - surrender of this space is ongoing before the Commercial Court. They confirmed that there is interest from new investors from Albania.
The remains of the hotel are visible under the thick undergrowth, which descends into the sea. The place with a view of the Old Town and the Small Beach is used as a parking lot.
SRUSHILI LIDO, A
WE WOULD BUILD IN BUDVA In 2006, the company Capital Estate Budva bought Lido and bungalows for 10,8 million euros and undertook to invest almost 38 million euros in three years.
The building was demolished, the bungalows ruined, and a tractor used by the few remaining workers is parked in front of the reception.
Capital estate, whose owner is the offshore company Felixport enterprises from Cyprus, and whose executive director is Dragan Lučić, gave up building a hotel on Velika plaža in 2012, allegedly due to the pollution of the nearby Port Milena, and offered to build on a new location, but in Budva.
The company negotiated the construction of the Lido hotel with the Karisma group, which leased the Belvi and Olimpik hotels on the Velika beach. Karisma did not answer CIN-CG's questions about it, and earlier they told "Vijesti" that the negotiations were suspended due to the corona crisis.
The Municipality of Ulcinj did not respond to CIN-CG's questions regarding the demolished hotels.
OF FJORD - LEDINA
Kotor's Fjord Hotel, which was built in 1986, through mass voucher privatization, through Eurofund, was liked by Veselin Barović's Alfa invest company.
Then, in 2005, it was sold through bankruptcy to Irish businessmen Louis Maguire and Michael Fingleton, who paid 5,5 million euros for it through the New Fjord Development company.
The new owners quarreled, so three reorganization plans were submitted in the bankruptcy proceedings. The proposal of New Fjord Development was accepted, so the bankruptcy was terminated at the beginning of 2013.
Maguire, as reported by the media, sent a letter to the cabinet of the President of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović, at the end of last year, in which he stated that his property had been stolen and that he believed that an "organized bankruptcy mafia and a network of related foreign and domestic businessmen, lawyers and politician", which "caused him damage of at least 12,4 million euros". He also accused former minister Branimir Gvozdenović of asking for a million-dollar bribe, which he denies.
"...It is known to the public that in 2019, immediately after this lie was published, I filed a lawsuit against him at the Basic Court in Podgorica, seeking judicial protection against false accusations and untruths. Then, as now, I am surprised that the media that reported these slanders did not find it necessary to check the credibility of the 'Irish businessman' because, in that way, it would be easy to understand what kind of profile the man is talking about," Gvozdenović told CIN. -CG.
The SDT did not answer CIN-CG's questions about what they had done regarding Maguire's accusations.
In 2018, the Podgorica company Boka Bay Investment, whose owners are Orhan Pelinković from Bar and GB-Act group, became the new owner of the Fjord Hotel. On the Act group website, the Fjord hotel is presented as an ongoing project that will have five stars.
The new owner demolished the hotel and announced the works at the end of last year, but they have not yet started.
The Act group company did not answer CIN-CG's questions about why they were late.
The President of Kotor Municipality, Vladimir Jokić, told CIN-CG that they are very interested in getting a five-star hotel on the site of the Fjord and believes that due to its jurisdiction, "the state should take part in monitoring and speeding up the implementation of that project".
HERCEG NOVI AFTER VEKTRA THERE ARE NO BIG HOTELS
The case of HTP Boka, which was sold to Dragan Brković's company Vektra in 2007, ended up in the prosecution.
At the beginning of February, the SDT assessed that the state was damaged for about 50 million euros due to non-compliance with the sales contract.
The SDT told CIN-CG that the case is in the investigation phase, and that an expert examination is underway. They also said that several cases were formed for Vektra Boka and that an official note was made in one of them.
The purchase agreement with Vektra Montenegro, to which the majority package of state fund shares (59,4 percent) was sold, was signed in December 2007. HTP Boka was sold for 22,2 million euros, and the buyer undertook to invest 50 million euros within three years.
For years, part of the public and the NGO sector, as well as trade unions, have been warning about the harmfulness of the contract, pointing out that the buyer is allowed to sell real estate in Boka, the value of which does not exceed 30 percent of the total book value.
The Municipality told CIN-CG that Vektra Boka has so far sold the business premises of the former Accounting Service, the main bus station and other assets. In 2018, Brković asked the Privatization Council for approval for the sale of Plaža, Igalo, Tamaris and the old Boka hotels, but he did not receive it.
Instead of Tamaris, there is now an unorganized parking lot, and Igalo and Plaža are ruins.
In 2010, the municipality of Herceg Novi adopted urban planning projects for Tamaris and Plaža.
The land on which the Igalo Hotel is located is under litigation, because the Acović family is seeking the return of the nationalized land.
In front of the Parliamentary Commission for Privatization Control, which dealt with this issue several times, Brković said in April that he would sue the state if Boka's assets were not released from the burden of restitution and labor disputes from the pre-privatization period were not resolved.
He claims that these data were hidden from him, which the president of the tender commission, Predrag Nenezić, denied.
The Commercial Court recently initiated pre-bankruptcy proceedings for Vektra Boka, as a prelude to classic bankruptcy.
The Municipality of Herceg Novi told CIN-CG that the previous Government protected the interests of the customer, and the Commercial Court, through the reorganization plan, enabled him to continue bad business.
Brković's companies have been among the biggest tax debtors for years.
ON THE HORIZONTUNES OF CONSTRUCTION
The new local government in Tivat is not, as they told CIN-CG, fully aware of the reasons for the delay in building new hotels instead of the demolished Mimosa in the city center and Blue Horizons in Pržna bay, but they have initiated some discussions.
Mimoza operated as part of the hotel and tourism company of the same name, whose shares were sold by the state in 2002 to the company Irva Beograd, Đorđija Nicović, for only 400 thousand euros, with the obligation to reach a majority stake of 2,5 percent by investing 51 million euros.
HTP Mimoza sold the Mimoza hotel in 2015 for EUR 6,5 million to the company Mimoza Group from Tivat, whose director was Ukrainian citizen Anastasija Lashmanova, who was killed in Kotor in 2018.
The current owners of Mimoza group, according to data from CRPS, are Lilia Kail (75 percent) and Blagoje Peković (25 percent), while the founder is Russian businessman Aleksander Zadorin, and the media speculate that Valerij Zadorin, the owner of Aroma, one of the largest for trade in luxury products in Russia.
The Ministry of Sustainable Development issued urban technical conditions for a condo-hotel with apartments for sale at the end of 2015, in which it is written that "if the investor decides, the existing building can be demolished and a new one built according to the conditions for the planned buildings".
The oldest hotel in Tivat, built in 1958, was demolished in 2016 and the new one has not yet been completed.
In 28, the Qatari state investment fund Qatari diar bought the Plavi horizonti hotel and about 2010 square meters of land from Tivat's HTP Primorje for about 240.000 million euros. An investment of 250 million euros was announced in the new complex, which was supposed to be completed by September 2014.
The hotel was demolished in 2011, and according to the company's website, the construction of a resort with a luxury hotel, a beach club, more than 140 residential villas is planned...
After information that Qatari Diar was leaving Montenegro due to unresolved property disputes, the Government made a decision on land expropriation in September 2014. According to unofficial information, the Qataris expected the locals to sell them land, which several of them refused.
"The implementation of the project is conditioned by the completion of court proceedings in connection with the plots whose status has not yet been regulated", it is written in Government Information from 2019, with the explanation that the plots are co-owned by natural persons who contest the initiated expropriation.
At the end of 2019, it was announced that the then Prime Minister Duško Marković had spoken in London with the Qataris and that the problems had been overcome.
The Qataris did not answer CIN-CG's questions about why the complex has not yet been built and when construction will begin.
Reconstruction of nothing in Petrovac
A huge construction of concrete and steel arose on the coast in Petrovac, in the place where the Hotel Oliva used to be, a symbol of the beginning of modern tourism, which was demolished in the 1979 earthquake.
The solitaires of the planned complex started in 2012, which changed the microclimate and took away the view of the sea from the residents of the Brežine settlement, are the result of a joint investment agreement between the Budva Riviera and Miloš Perović's Euromix trade company, which owns the Riviera hotel nearby.
Locals and representatives of the opposition at the time pointed out in vain that the construction was illegally permitted as a reconstruction of a building that did not even exist.
The contract from 2011 stipulates that 48 of the 269 accommodation units in Crystal Riviera will be given to the Budva Riviera, as well as the separate Crystal Palas hotel.
The deadline for completion was the end of 2016, but the Crystal Palas was completed in 2019, and became part of the Palas Hotel, while the Crystal Riviera was stopped for rough works.
From the Euromix company, the delay is justified by problems due to the deficiency of the cadastre of underground installations, incorrectly placed power cable...
The Budva Riviera told CIN-CG that the remaining part of the facility is required to be completed by Euromix, who informed them that he has practically ended negotiations with a partner who is ready to complete the works.
They explain that at the end of the construction of the remaining part of the project, according to the contract, a final calculation will be made in relation to the total built area and that they have started the procedure for taking over the part that belongs to them according to the contract.
Gvozdenović: There were no plans, but no money either
DPS MP and former Minister of Tourism Branimir Gvozdenović told CIN-CG that he does not think that the investors wanted to build apartments for sale and therefore did not respect their obligations.
"I don't think that was the case, given that there was no change of purpose in any location in the planning documents, which would eventually give investors the right to correct their investment ambitions."
In some cases, he says, investors overestimated their capabilities or failed to secure money, and often the problem was a lack of planning documentation, or unresolved property-legal or other issues.
He explains that they tried to solve the problem and help the investor, before "rigidly resorting to terminating the contract".
"Somewhere such an approach gave results, somewhere it didn't. Of course, our satisfaction with the results would be even greater if it "turned out" like Galeb, Fjord, Tamaris... it didn't happen. It is possible that, in some situations, we should have additionally insisted on the contracted investment program, at the cost of terminating the contract. However, we should keep in mind that we would probably just return to the starting position, and the problem would still exist".
Destroyed symbols of Žabljak
The tourist offer of Žabljak, as a center of winter tourism, has been significantly weakened after the closure of three large hotels - Planinka, Jezera and Durmitor, which is confirmed by the President of the Municipality Veselin Vukićević for CIN-CG.
That handicap, he says, is especially noticeable when sports competitions are organized, so one team has to be accommodated in several hotels.
Hotels Jezera and Žabljak, part of the Durmitor Ski Center property, were bought in 2004 by Hotel Management Aktiengesellschaft from Liechtenstein, businessman Sava Kujundžić, who founded Hotel Management Durmitor in Montenegro.
The buyer did not restore the Jezera, which he paid 1,5 million euros for, and committed to invest 3,9 million euros in the reconstruction in three years. By the judgment of the Commercial Court in 2016, the contract for that hotel was terminated. The former government gave the buyer one more chance, after the contract annex committed to invest 3,2 million euros in five years, but nothing was done even after that.
Hotel Planinka, which also once belonged to the Durmitor Ski Center, was sold at the end of 2005 to a consortium consisting of HLT Fund and HTP Primorje Tivat.
The buyer did not fulfill the obligation to invest around EUR 8,7 million, so the contract was terminated, which was confirmed by the Court of Appeal at the end of 2017 after the Commercial Court.
The hotel should return to the bankruptcy estate of the Durmitor Ski Center.
Only 18 hotels have five stars
In 2019, according to Monstat data, there were a total of 403 collective accommodation facilities (hotels, boarding houses, motels, tourist resorts, resorts, hostels, camps, etc.) in Montenegro, with around 20,8 thousand accommodation units and 48,7 thousand beds. Of these, only 18 have five stars and a total of 2,86 thousand beds.
Croatia, for example, according to data from their Ministry of Tourism, at the end of 2019 had 784 hotels with 122.568 beds, 44 with five stars.
In 2006, Montenegro had 25,6 thousand rooms and 65 thousand beds in collective accommodation, which means that the number of accommodation capacities has decreased. If a dozen ruined and demolished hotels were in operation, the total number of rooms would be higher by at least 1.500, and investors announced an increase in capacity up to six times.
Durmitor is being built
Hotel Durmitor was bought by the Adriatic properties company of Greek businessman Petros Statis in 2016 for 650 thousand euros and demolished two years later.
The hotel had a recognizable appearance and the initiative for protection as an immovable cultural asset submitted by Expeditio in April 2013 was accepted, according to Aleksandra Kapetanović, they received a letter from the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Assets.
The experts, hired by Statis' company, gave their opinion that the old hotel would not withstand reconstruction and that it should be demolished.
CIN-CG previously announced that the Administration accepted the expert's opinion and gave up protecting the hotel.
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