Part of the condo hotel "Westin Kolašin Resort" in Bjelasica, the first project that the government included in the list of development projects in the framework of the economic citizenship program in 2019, should be demolished, because during construction the investor significantly deviated from the square footage provided for in the project, on the basis of which and received a building permit.
The decision on demolition, which was preceded by the decision on the further ban on construction, was made by the urban and construction inspector, coordinator for the central region, Novak Lakušić, February 23 of this year.
The Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property confirmed to "Vijesta" that "it was ordered to remove a part" of the four-star hotel, "which is currently under construction and which was erected contrary to the revised main project".
When the solution to Lakušić will be carried out, that is, part of the hotel will be demolished, the Ministry does not answer precisely - in the answer to the questions of "Vijesti" they state that it will be done by "the executive service, according to the established dynamics".
The list of decisions on the demolition of buildings in the territory of Montenegro for the year 2024, they claim, was submitted to the competent regional units of the Real Estate Administration, in order to enter notes in the appropriate registers.
"Before the decision on demolition was made, the investor was issued a decision prohibiting further construction and was ordered to eliminate irregularities in order to harmonize the performed works with the main project. The decision on the ban on construction was made on August 23, 2023, with a clearly defined deadline for adapting the works to the approved project. However, due to the failure of the investor to act within the stipulated period, a final decision on the demolition was made", announced the department headed by Slaven Radunović.
On October 17, the Ministry, as a second instance authority, rejected the investor's appeal against Lakušić's decision.
"Vijesti" was unofficially told by several sources from that department that Lakušić is no longer in the position of inspector, coordinator for the central region, to which Kolašin also belongs.
The Ministry did not respond to "Vijesti" whether this is true and where Lakušić is now working. On the website of the Ministry, it is written that Lakušić is the coordinator inspector for "Podgorica Municipality"...
"Vijesti" was unable to get in touch with Lakušić.
Malaysians overdid the squares
The hotel's investor is the company "Kolašin resort & Spa", which, at the time when the government was boasting about investments in Bjalasica and Kolašin and the benefits of the economic citizenship program, was said to be part of the ARNN Group concern from Malaysia.
According to the documentation that "Vijesti" had access to, the executive director of the company "Kolašin Resort & Spa" is Nirjhor Salim Chowdhury, and expert supervision was performed by the company "Bates" from Podgorica.
According to the explanation of Lakušić's decision to prohibit further construction, and then the decision to demolish, a basement, about four and a half meters high, was built under lamella B, one of the three of which the hotel consists, which was not foreseen in the revised main project.
Lakušić noted that the basement floor of lamella C also does not correspond to the revised main project, so instead of the designed 219,99 square meters, the useful area "was carried out in the full area under that lamella". A discrepancy with the project was also noted in the part of the constructed attic space. As it was determined during the inspection, instead of the projected 320 square meters of useful space in the attic, about 810 square meters were built.
After the irregularities were found, the inspector gave the investor 30 days to remove them, but this was not done, which resulted in the demolition decision.
The total deviation from the revised main project in the attic and basement parts, according to unofficial information from "Vijesti", amounts to about one thousand square meters.
During the inspection, as written in Lakušić's minutes, the investor did not have a certified and signed version of the original revised main project, so, as stated, the inspector inspected the original documentation at the Ministry.
Pompous announcements
The hotel for which they are from the Government Duško Marković claimed that it would contribute to the development of the entire north, it was built just a few tens of meters from the starting station of the private Kolašin 1450 Ski Center. That is why it is in the best location compared to other facilities within the Kolašin 1450 Mountain Center.
During the Marković government, it was announced that 800 guests would be able to stay in the luxurious rooms and apartments. Conceived in three parts, the complex should include restaurants with Mediterranean and international cuisine, bars, a gym, a game room, and a conference hall.
It was also announced that the hotel, whose net area is about 9.000 square meters, will be completed by 2022.
It was then announced that the value of the investment is 11,3 million euros and that 66 jobs will be created.
"The ski resort will be managed by the York Hotels & Resorts company under the international luxury hotel brand Westin. The facility will be called the Westin Kolašin Resort, which is a franchise agreement with the American company Marriott International USA", the company announced at the time.
The construction of the hotel, extended several times, began in the spring of 2020. Four years ago, the then Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic he spoke in Kolašin "on the occasion of the start of the construction of the Westin Hotel and the renovation of the Lipka Hotel" (now the "Four Points by Sheraton" hotel).
However, there was a long wait for the start of construction, after Đukanović then left Kolašin...
Money laundering investigation against the government's partners
According to available official data, the company "Kolašin Resort & Spa" was founded in March 2016, the representatives are Mohammed Abdul Alim Chowdhury and Nirjhor Salim Chwdhury who is also the CEO. It also says that it is one hundred percent owned by "Royal Amro Limited".
The same representatives are the company "Silk resort & Spa", which is the owner of the hotel "Four Points by Sheraton", which has been closed for four years. The hotel was closed in May 2020 due to, as explained, business difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, hotel owners have made "decisions on extending the temporary suspension of catering services" several times. Those decisions have long been displayed on the front door of the hotel...
The current situation in "Four Points by Sheraton" reminds of what happened several years ago, in the same building, but under a different "brand". Namely, that hotel was previously called "Lipka" and was owned by "Beppler Investments LTD". They bought the hotel, then under construction, from the PIO Fund for 750.000 euros. While the owner was the company "Beppler Investments LTD", the hotel was managed by the Croatian company "Adriastar".
"First Bank" Aca Đukanović, the biological brother of Milo Đukanović, became the owner of that hotel in 2012, because the building served as collateral for a loan that the owner did not pay back regularly.
In October 2014, "Budvanska Riviera" leased "Lipka", so the hotel operated successfully for some time.
Five years ago, it was bought by the company "Silk Resort & Spa" from "Prva banka" for 6,9 million euros.
As "Dan" wrote three years ago, Mohammed Abdul Alim Chwdhury is one of the businessmen against whom the authorities in Bangladesh launched an investigation for alleged embezzlement, organized crime and money laundering.
"As stated in the text of the newspaper 'Daily Star', the investigative part of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), investigating numerous transactions, found evidence of the registration of at least 14 companies at only two addresses, which were used to obtain loans and launder money... Mohammed Abdul Alim Chwdhury is associated with four companies founded in Montenegro...", "Dan" wrote at the time.
According to that diary, in addition to the companies "Kolašin Resort & Spa" and "Silk resort & Spa", the businessman is also an authorized representative of "York Hotels & Resorts" and "Crestwood Resort & Spa".
During the coronavirus pandemic, some of these companies donated 100.000 euros to the then National Coordination Team for the fight against infectious diseases.
Ramp for a journalist on a private ski resort
The plots on which the condo hotel is being built are within the private Ski Center Kolašin 1450 of Zoran Ćoć Bećirović.
In order to get to that half-finished hotel in the easiest way, you have to pass the ramp with the security guard, who told the "Vijesti" reporter yesterday that "the investor does not allow entry to private property."
The worker on the ramp called, as he said, his boss Goran. Soon, two men arrived by car, who asked the journalist why she had come, and then said that she was not allowed in the area of the private ski resort, that is, the area between numerous locations where hotels and private villas are being built.
It is also the passage to the restaurant and the departure station of the private ski resort.
"Ma'am, I am not interested in your journalist ID. We are a serious company, this is private property, you didn't sign up, you can't pass. You can't get to the hotel by any other approach because there is a ramp and a camera down there," said one of the men.
The photos for the purposes of this text were taken from plots owned by the state, which can be reached by a detour through the forest, on the other side of the Paljevina River...
The hotel is not on the list of tourist development projects
The hotel, during the construction of which irregularities were found and ordered to be demolished, is currently not on the list of development projects in the field of tourism on the website of the Investment Agency. Of the 15 hotels on that list, more than half are being built in Kolašin.
The program for acquiring Montenegrin citizenship through investment was implemented by the Investment Agency on the basis of the Decision on the criteria, method and procedure for selecting persons who can acquire Montenegrin citizenship by admission for the purpose of implementing a special investment program of special importance for the economic and economic interests of Montenegro.
At the end of 2022, the economic citizenship program was abolished, following the recommendations of the European Commission on the risks it carries with it.
In 250.000, the government of the Democratic Party of Socialists introduced the program for obtaining Montenegrin citizenship based on an investment in a project, in the amount of 450.000 euros in the north, or 2019 on the coast.
Despite the announcements, the governments that succeeded it, allegedly because of significant revenues for Montenegro, did not cancel the program until the end of 2022.
According to the data of the Investment Agency, a total of 807 economic citizenships were granted.
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