The company "Adriatic properties" is owned by a businessman Petros Statis he will have one month to open the hotel "Sveti Stefan" and the villa "Miločer", which have been closed for the fourth summer, and pay the lease debt of about two million, and if he does not do this, the government will terminate the lease contracts.
"News" confirmed this unofficially in the Government.
"This topic was discussed on Friday at the session marked "internal", when the Information on the status of activities based on the contract for the lease of the hotels "Sveti Stefan", "Miločer" and "Kraljičina plaža" and the annex to the contract accepted by the decision of the Assembly of June 31 was determined. 2015, that is, on December 29, 2015, with an analysis of the legal situation in connection with the contract and a proposal for a notification on determining the deadline for fulfilling the obligations stipulated in the contract", said the source of "Vijesti".
Verification of the conclusion, then sending a notification
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economic Development Nick Djelosaj is in charge of sending a notification to "Adriatic properties" to fulfill the obligations, and that, according to the "Vijesti" source, is expected this week after the conclusions from the session are verified.
"Vijesti" contacted "Adriatic Properties" on this occasion yesterday. from whom they expect an answer.
On January 15, 2007, the government gave the green light to conclude a 30-year lease agreement for the "Sveti Stefan" hotel, the "Miločer" villa and the "Kraljičina plaža" hotel. According to the contract at that time, the guaranteed annual total rent is 1,6 million euros, but the contract also stipulates that the rent can be revised every third year. The lessee undertook to keep the hotels open for a minimum of 11 months, but also to invest 50 million in the reconstruction of "Sveti Stefan".
The 2015 annex for "Sveti Stefan" extended the lease for 12 years, until 2049, and reduced the rent from 1,6 million to 1,1 million euros. With the annex for "Kraljičina plaža", the lease was extended from 30 to 90 years and the construction of a condo hotel was made possible, i.e. half of the apartments will be for sale and half for hotel business.
"For a whole year, not a cent was paid to the account of this company, which is majority owned by the state, in the name of the lease of the city-hotel "Sveti Stefan" and the villa "Miločer", and the debt exceeded one and a half million euros. The quarterly rent without VAT amounts to 388 thousand", it was explained yesterday from "Sveti Stefan hoteli", which has not yet sent the invoice for the fifth quarter.
HTP "Miločer" clarified that the rent for the former hotel "Kraljičina plaža" and the villa in Miločerski Park was not paid to that state company for five quarters (15 months). The quarterly rent is 87, excluding VAT, so the current debt has reached half a million euros.
Without an agreement on the functioning of the Kraljičina beach and the path between that beach and the spa center in Miločerski Park, the hotel operator "Aman" will not open the city-hotel "Sveti Stefan" because they cannot guarantee the guests' safety and privacy.
It was the use of the Queen's Beach, which for decades was closed to the public, reserved exclusively for hotel guests and the political elite, that led to the closure of the popular "Svec". Namely, the city-hotel was closed in 2021 after the locals broke the fence on Kraljičina beach, and the Public Enterprise for the Management of Marine Assets ordered its removal, and the trails in Miločerks Park were freed for use.
After the incident happened in the summer of 2021, "Adriatic Properties" asked for guarantees from the state that this would not happen again, but they did not receive them. Then the state initiated arbitration proceedings before the court in London, and then "Adriatic Properties" retaliated.
The old hotel "Kraljičina plaža" was demolished, and a new one with annexes (apartments) for the market began to be built in its place, but the works have been suspended for the second year due to arbitration proceedings.
As "Vijesti" wrote in mid-June this year, "Adriatic Properties" accepted the Government's proposal to put the arbitration proceedings before the International Tribunal in London on hold for three months, and during that time to open an elite resort. The agreement is that in those three months, the two parties will resolve all mutual problems they have through negotiations and come out of the arbitration procedure by agreement. "Svetac" was partially open last year, but only for visitors.
However, even though it was the Government's proposal, the fifth since January, since the tenant insisted on reaching an agreement and getting out of the dispute, the Government replied that they do not accept the temporary opening of the city-hotel.
Đeljošaj in early July in response to a parliamentary question Dejan Đurović (NSD) stated that the tenant of "Sveti Stefan" has been illegally using the promenades between the Queen's beach and the Aman spa center and the public road connecting the island of Sveti Stefan with the coast for more than a decade and illegally prohibits others from using them. These public roads are not covered by the lease agreement and it is a matter of unlimited private (mis)use of what is not the subject of the agreement.
Đeljošaj replied that the Government's intention from the very beginning was to try to negotiate with the tenant of the Hotel Sv. Stefan and Miločer around the opening.
"Both the previous and the current government and relevant ministries decided to communicate with the tenant in a genuine effort to explore what mutually acceptable solutions regarding a large number of burdensome disputed issues could be possible, but only in accordance with Montenegrin positive legal regulations. However, the tenant persistently repeats the same requests that are not suitable for a solution for the fourth year in a row. He specifically refers to his letter dated July 1, 2021, then addressed to the cabinet of the former prime minister (Zdravka) Krivokapića. In that letter, among other concessions, he asked for the principle of "exclusivity" and "exclusive use of the beaches" as an "indisputable right" - precisely the point that remains problematic, bearing in mind Montenegrin positive legal regulations", replied Đeljošaj.
Loss of tens of millions of euros
He stated that "the entire correspondence of the tenant does not move from that "dead spot"".
"In circumstances where the lessee is in possession of the hotel facilities according to the Lease Agreement, opening the hotel is his obligation as long as the agreement is in force, or until the parties agree otherwise. In this regard, the Government is ready to take advantage of all possible opportunities in order to open hotels and manage them, in order to ensure their operation, but without conducting negotiations for the amendment of the Agreement on long-term lease/agreement on the use of marine assets and the consent of the Parliament of Montenegro, the Government cannot be ready to use its guarantees to change the existing regime of property use, in a way that, according to the understanding of the Ministry of Economic Development and JP Morsko dobro, would be in conflict with the signed contract and positive legal regulations. Providing guarantees that are not legally sustainable and aligned with positive legal regulations could potentially cause multiple damages to the state".
Certainly, as he states, in this situation it would be best if an agreement could be reached that would eventually result in the withdrawal of arbitration proceedings.
"Otherwise, the Ministry and the Government are ready to undertake all other actions that are in the public interest and find a sustainable solution for the further operation of the hotel on St. Stefan, in accordance with the highest standards, compatible with the natural and cultural-historical peculiarities of St. Stefan as icons of world tourism. When we say other measures and actions, we mean above all that, if the contracting party does not respect the contractual obligations and after so much time has passed, it is not ready to open St. Stefan and keep it open for six months, in which case the Government will proceed to review the economic rationality of further maintaining such a contract in force. Considering that the tenant stopped paying the rent (four quarters were not paid in full, in the amount of 1.555.478 euros, and the other quarters were paid partially), this clearly undermines the remaining commercial rationality of keeping the tenant and keeping the Lease Agreement in unchanged form. The financial findings show exactly that the state, the economy, and the tourism sector suffer concrete measurable damage from such (non)work, which is valued at tens of millions of euros and which damage, both financial and measurable, as well as in terms of the image of the destination, "spills over" from the tourist area to everything other sectors, the economy as a whole", stated Đeljošaj.
The government guarantees security and we open a hotel
The tenant is willing to open the hotel this season as well, without resolving the arbitration issue, putting the arbitration on hold or without affecting the arbitration, as suits the Government, if the Government agrees to ensure the safety and privacy of the hotel guests. This means that the mode of use of Kraljičina beach should be the same as before the incident in 2021, or at least the regime from last year, when in season, between 8 am and 20 pm, Kraljičina beach was only for hotel guests, and outside that interval it was open to all visitors." , told the "News" in "Adriatic Properties" in mid-June.
The financial findings show exactly that the state, the economy, and the tourism sector suffer concrete measurable damage from such (non)work, which is valued at tens of millions of euros and which, both financially and measurable, as well as in terms of the image of the destination, "spills over" from the tourist to everything other sectors, the economy as a whole," said Đeljošaj
As they explain, this regime is normally stipulated in the contract for all four beaches, because it is stipulated that the beaches are hotel properties and are used in accordance with the global "Aman" standards that provide for privacy on the beaches.
If an agreement is not reached with the Government regarding the opening of the city-hotel "Sveti Stefan" and Villa "Miločer", the three beaches that comprise this complex will not be arranged.
It is about Kraljičina beach, Velika miločerska beach (King's beach) and the right St. Stephen's or hotel beach. Only the part of the left Svetostephan beach, which was given in the tender, will be arranged.
Bonus video:
