Old tenants await Alabar's offer: Uncertain fate of Ulcinj beach, which was won by "Eagle Hills" in the tender

Will the company “Eagle Hills”, owned by a well-known investor from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Mohamed Alabara It is still unknown whether the company will manage nine beaches on Velika Plaza in Ulcinj, for which it offered the highest amounts of money and won the tender of the Public Company for Coastal Zone Management, or whether it will sublease them to the current tenants.

These beaches are currently without beach furniture and accompanying facilities, while their current tenants are slowly making preparations for the upcoming season, hoping that Alabar will leave management to them in the future.

Prime Minister Milojko Spajic In mid-March, he conveyed the message from Alabar to the leaders of the Municipality and Assembly of Ulcinj, as well as the heads of councilor clubs and MPs from that city, that this global investor is ready to give up on those beaches or sublease them to them, where the tenants are Montenegrin citizens.

The Coastal State Administration pointed out to "Vijesti" that there are no legal obstacles to the transfer of beaches if the first-ranked bidder decides to transfer management to third parties, including previous users, and that this is purely a matter of business agreement.

"In the event that the first-ranked bidder withdraws, in accordance with the procedure, a contract can be concluded with the second-ranked bidder. If the first-ranked bidder decides to cede the location to third parties, including previous users, this is exclusively a matter of mutual business relations, with the obligation to respect all contractual obligations from the concluded contract with Morski dobro," they said in this state-owned company, adding that they do not mediate in these relations, unless this is provided for by a special act.

President of the Ulcinj Beach Tenants Association Prelja Škrelja He told "Vijesti" that there is a possibility that Alabar will hand over the beaches to the current tenants if they take over the bank guarantees from the tender.

One of the previous tenants told "Vijesti" that they have nothing official yet, but that there are indications that the company backed by Arab capital is ready to hand over management of the beaches, but that he does not yet know under what conditions.

The Coastal Department clarified that there is nothing controversial regarding the offers from the company "Eagle Hills" for the lease of Ulcinj's beaches.

"The bids submitted by the company "Eagle Hills" were considered equally and in accordance with all applicable procedures, as were all other submitted bids. The documentation was complete and submitted on time, and the bids were valid for evaluation. After the evaluation and ranking procedure was carried out, the public enterprise commissions made decisions according to which the company "Eagle Hills" was ranked as the first-ranked bidder for nine out of a total of 19 locations for which it applied," they said in Morski dobro, adding that the decisions were submitted on time, and that the continuation of the procedure "is proceeding in accordance with the prescribed deadlines and obligations arising from the selection decision."

When asked why most of the tenants of Ulcinj's beaches have not yet concluded contracts and when that could happen, the public company said that the procedure is taking place in accordance with the prescribed dynamics and is in the final phase.

"The specificity of this area is reflected in the fact that a significant number of tenants use the option of paying rent in installments throughout the year, which extends the deadlines for submitting bank guarantees and affects the speed of concluding contracts. This segment of the process depends solely on the tenants, but does not represent an obstacle to the implementation of the complete procedure," they explained in Morski dobro.

At the end of April, the Coastal Department announced to "Vijesti" that it expects that more than 90 percent of beaches will have signed contracts by the start of the season, but it did not specify how many beaches in total, nor specifically by coastal municipality.

The state-owned company's regulations on the transfer of parts of the coastal zone stipulate that the beaches will be open on May 1st, but it has never happened that they were fully open, and tenders were announced after that date, even during the peak of the summer season.

The public company claims that it was faced with a situation where, despite a timely tender, there were no offers for the lease, so they had to repeat the procedure.

According to the temporary facilities program and the Atlas of Montenegrin Beaches and Beaches for the period from 2024 to 2028, this summer the Montenegrin coast has 563 beaches.

"In the previous period, 489 bathing areas were identified in the field on the Montenegrin coast, namely 134 in Herceg Novi, 35 in Kotor, 40 in Tivat, 133 in Budva, 81 in Bar and 66 in Ulcinj. With these amendments to the program, an additional 74 new bathing areas were formed (563 in total), of which 13 in Herceg Novi, 12 in Kotor, 8 in Tivat, 18 in Budva, 11 in Bar and 12 in Ulcinj," the document states.

The tender is proceeding according to plan.

When asked who is responsible for the fact that only ten percent of the beaches on Velika Plaza were ready to welcome tourists for the May Day holidays, the public company said that it is important to emphasize that the current dynamics do not deviate from usual practice in any way and do not jeopardize the preparation for the season.

"We have a very clear historical example from 2019, when the tender procedure lasted almost until the end of August, and the tenants then took over the locations only at the end of the season. At that time, this did not cause any reactions, nor were there any doubts about the organization of the system. Today, when the processes have been improved, implemented within legal and record deadlines, and when contracts have already been concluded for more than 95% of the locations, attempts to present a different picture have no realistic basis. On the contrary, this is one of the most successfully implemented processes in the history of the company, and everything is taking place according to plan, efficiently and without deviations," the Coastal Zone state.