According to unofficial information from Vijesti, the Podgorica-based company Gufo purchased the Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Kolašin from the Silk Resort and Spa company at the end of September. The hotel, which used to operate under the name Lipka, has not been operating for more than five years, and the company, which is allegedly the new owner, did not want to provide information about the details of the purchase agreement.
Attorney Savo Jasnic, who represented the company "Silk Resort and Spa" during the purchase and sale, told "Vijesti" that he was not authorized, without the consent of his clients, to make statements about the deal. He later explained that his clients did not want to comment on the topic of the hotel purchase.
Guarantee
According to data from the Central Register of Business Entities (CRPS), the founder and executive director of the company "Gufo" is Željko GarićThis firm offered bail for an arrested secret agent in 2022. Petar Lazović in real estate in the amount of 4,64 million euros, which was rejected by the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT).
In April 2022, MANS announced that in early 2021, the mother of Petar Lazović, Lily, exchanged an apartment with Garić, who has multiple business connections with the owners of "Bemax" and their other companies.
She then gives up her 64-square-meter apartment on Jola Piletića Boulevard in exchange for an 84-square-meter apartment and a garage in a building in the center of Podgorica, behind the Hilton Hotel. The documentation on the real estate exchange, obtained by MANS, shows that Ljiljana's apartment across the Morača River was valued at 89.600 euros. On the other hand, the 84-square-meter apartment and garage in the very center of Podgorica were valued at 100.000 euros. In this way, Lazović gets a significantly larger apartment at a price that is below the market price for that part of the city, while the parking space is practically given to her as a gift.
At that time, they also announced that Garić's connections with the company "Bemax" and its founders were multiple and that, in addition to the company "Gufo", he was also the owner of the Women's Basketball Club "Budućnost Bemax", and one of the co-owners of the company "Saprom", in which he was also Ranko Ubović.
“Gufo” has an apart hotel in the center of Budva in a building complex that the “Bemaks” company built on a plot of land owned by locals.
An interviewee for “Vijesti” who was involved in the purchase process of the hotel in Kolašin explains that the intention is for the hotel to open its doors to tourists in March. Before that, the stone slabs on the plateau in front of the building should be replaced, which have been significantly damaged in recent years, because they are “Trebinje stone, which is not suited to the Kolašin climate”. On the other hand, as “Vijesti” was told, the hotel’s interior is well preserved, and the Kolašin resident in charge of its maintenance has done his job well.
Changed owner several times
This once renowned tourist facility, which was once declared the best hotel in northern Montenegro, has changed owners and names several times. The company "Silk Resort & Spa", whose founder and representative, when she bought the hotel in 2016, which was previously called "Lipka", was a certain Muhammad Abdul Chowdhury, a citizen of Grenada. The hotel was purchased that year from Prva Banka for 6,9 million euros. The purchase agreement at the time stated that the bank secured the buyer by providing a loan of 4,9 million euros, and that Silk Resort & Spa was to pay the remaining 1,5 million euros immediately. The loan, for which the Lipka hotel was collateral, was approved for ten years, at an interest rate of four percent per annum.
Prva Banka received the building because it had previously served as collateral for a loan, and it took over it in 2012. Namely, four months after “Beppler Investments LTD” bought the building under construction from the Republic Fund for 750.000 euros, the subsidiary “Beppler Investments Montenegro” took out a mortgage loan from the then Nikšićka banka in the amount of 1,5 million euros. In mid-2010, the total amount of debt increased to 4,01 million euros.
While the owner was the company “Beppler Investments LTD”, the hotel was managed by the Croatian company “Adriastar”. For several years, former workers of “Lipka” were unable to obtain their work documents from their employers, which is why they organized protests, but also wrote to all relevant state addresses. Their work books had been locked in the hotel since May 2012, when the labor inspectorate closed it due to irregularities in its operations.
Closed during the corona period
The substantial debts to the employees, based on wages, were settled only when the hotel inventory was sold at auction for 112.000 euros by court order. However, the workers claimed that the company “Beppler Investments LTD”, the former owner of “Lipka” and their former employer, still owed them a lot. No one from “Beppler Investments LTD” appeared at any of the numerous hearings before the Kolašin court. In October 2014, “Budvanska rivijera” leased “Lipka”, and the hotel operated successfully for some time.
After becoming the owner of the Kolašin hotel, the Asian "Arnn Group", founder of "Silk Resort and Spa", signed a cooperation agreement with the American hotel operator "Starwood Hotels and Resorts" in July 2016, and the hotel has since operated under the name "Four Points by Sheraton".
The hotel was closed during the coronavirus pandemic, and since then there has been almost no mention of its reopening. The closure in May 2020 was explained by “difficulty in business caused by the coronavirus pandemic”. Since then, the hotel owners have made “decisions to extend the temporary suspension of catering services” several times. These decisions were displayed on the hotel’s entrance door for a long time. After that, no one had any information about the owner’s intentions, and local leaders reduced their activities and interest in this important part of Kolašin’s tourist offer only to appeals and reminders of the importance of the facility.
"Gufo" is also interested in a hotel on Bjelasica
According to unofficial information from "Vijesti", the Podgorica company is also interested in purchasing a hotel on Bjelasica, whose investor is "Kolašin Resort & Spa".
This company was registered in Podgorica by Muhamed Abdul Chowdhury just a few months before he bought the then Lipka. Then, within the Kolašin 1450 Mountain Resort, the construction of the “Westin Kolašin Resort” condo hotel began. The company recently had an unusual plan, namely, it tried to obtain a mortgage registration on its property in favor of the Dubai-based company “Royal Nova Home Furniture Trading LLC.” The unusual request, for the debtor to request the registration of a mortgage in favor of the alleged creditor, was twice rejected as unfounded by the Regional Unit (RU) of the Real Estate Administration in Kolašin.
The construction of the hotel is the first project that the Government included in the list of development projects in the field of tourism in 2019, as part of the economic citizenship program.
Part of the hotel, as "Vijesti" previously wrote, should be demolished because the investor significantly deviated from the square footage planned in the project, on the basis of which the building permit was obtained, during construction.
But that's not the only problem facing the company "Kolašin Resort & Spa". According to reports submitted to the Tax Administration, the company has not had any sales revenue since its establishment in 2016. In its annual business reports, the company entered zero under the item "sales revenue". The only significant revenue the company had in 2021, around 1,3 million, was reported in the balance sheets as "other operating income".
"Kolašin Resort & Spa", at a time when the Government was boasting about investments in Bjelasica and Kolašin, and the advantages of the economic citizenship program, was said to be part of the ARNN Group concern from Malaysia. According to available official data, the hotel was included in the economic citizenship program in 2019, and the business plan envisaged a condo model for the hotel's business with an estimated value of 11,3 million euros, with 93 accommodation units, with a total capacity of 380 beds. The investor's intention was, as announced at the time, to create 66 new jobs within the hotel complex.
Kolašin Resort & Spa previously announced that the ski resort will be managed by York Hotels & Resorts, under the international luxury hotel brand Westin, under a franchise agreement with the American company Marriott International USA. The Kolašin Resort & Spa project was excluded from the list of development projects in 2022 because it did not provide a bank guarantee, but later re-applied and met the formal requirements. Urban Planning Inspector In 2025, Novak Lakušić ordered the demolition of part of the hotel due to illegally constructed basement and attic spaces of around 1.000 m².
Connections with Mijajlović and Ivanović
According to MANS research, the company “Gufo” was one of the investors in the construction of the building known as the “Southern Gate of the City”, located on the outskirts of Podgorica, which was built by “Bemax”. The other investor in the project is “Master Inženjering”, the owner of the building in which the mother of agent Lazović acquired an apartment and a garage under preferential conditions. “Master Inženjering” is also the investor in the construction of the “Hotel Cruiser” facility in Budva, which is also being built by “Bemax”. On Friday, the SPO arrested Vladan Ivanović, the owner of the company “Master Inženjering”.
Garić's company "Gufo", as MANS writes, also included Aleksandar Mijajlović, who is also linked to "Bemax". This week, the SPO arrested Mijajlović, who was designated as the leader of an organized crime group, which, according to their claims, influenced, among other things, the political and executive authorities, the media and other important economic and social factors...
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