The owner of the Eagle Hills company, Mohamed Alabar, said that after the outcry from the local community in Montenegro, he gave up on a possible project on Ulcinj's Velika Plaza.
He said this in an interview with Newsmax Balkans television.
Alabar came into the Montenegrin public eye after his company Eagle Hills Montenegro applied for a tender to lease 18 beaches on Ulcinj's Velika Plaza. After the tender was completed, Alabar was awarded nine beaches. After that, Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajić announced that Alabar was interested in building a "mega project" on Velika Plaza, Newsmax Balkans reports.
In the UAE at the end of March, Spajić signed an Agreement on Economic and Cooperation in the Field of Real Estate Development with the local government, which provoked harsh criticism from part of the public, but also several protests from the local community in Ulcinj and several non-governmental organizations in Podgorica.
Several protests have been made, stating that the Agreement abolishes domestic legislation in the field of public procurement, tenders and state property, and that it seeks to give valuable property to only one investor, contrary to competition rules.
Two months later, Alabar admits that he made a mistake by applying for the tender to lease the beaches, but explains his reasons for such a decision.
"I wanted to get a swimming area on Velika Plaza to show the public how that area can be developed," the Arab investor told Newsmax Balkans television.
Alabar explained that after harsh public reactions, he decided to return all the bathing areas that he previously won in a tender in March.
"After everything that happened, I don't want to invest in the south (in Ulcinj, ed.) at all. Why? For example, why would you want to invest in Dubai if we don't want you? You shouldn't do that. Based on what I saw and read, I realized that people don't want investments in that area and I think they have the right to do so because they come from that community. That's fine with me. I've talked to the presidents of other municipalities and had great meetings with them," Alabar said.
He explained that during his stay in Podgorica, where he was the keynote speaker at a real estate conference on Thursday, he spoke with the presidents of other coastal and northern Montenegrin municipalities.
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"Montenegro has many opportunities and if someone tells us they want us to do something - fine, we will do it. For example, if someone tells me you have this space in Budva, you can build, for example, 20 apartments and two hotels, then I will step back and do the calculations, after which I will know what the total investment will be," said Alabar.
He added that his investments in several countries range from one to 15 billion euros.
"If you invest, say, one billion euros somewhere, always multiply it by three times, because such an investment has such an effect on the overall economy," he said.
"Mountains are interesting because of the fresh air"
Asked which locations in Montenegro he is now interested in investing in after giving up on Ulcinj, Alabar stated that he is interested in one location on the coast as well as one in the north of the country.
"You have to understand that for us, Arabs, mountains are interesting because of the fresh air because our countries have a tropical climate. Montenegro is beautiful, it has beautiful mountains as well as lakes," Alabar added.
He did not want to specify which locations were most interesting to him, but he said he was considering two options.
"I'm interested in a location roughly in the middle of the coast, and we also have two proposals for the north of the country. These are just ideas for now," said Alabar.
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