During 2011, the Sonuba Montenegro company, which bought 20 hectares of land and announced the investment worth over €300m, changed its owner, Dnevne Novine newspaper carried.
The new owner, Russian Merkur Group, required changes in the Detailed Spatial Plan, ie smaller construction dimensions, but the investor’s requirement has not been fulfilled yet. The new investor plans to construct luxury real estate on 150,000 square meters. However, according to the spatial plan, facilities should be constructed on a lot larger area.
Recently, it seemed that the stalemate would finally be ended, but only councillors of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and the Bosniak Party (BS) supported amendments to the Detailed Spatial plan in the local assembly, whereas representatives of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Demos, Democratic Front (DF) and the Socialist People’s Party (SNP) voted against it. The Positive Montenegro (PCG) and the Social Democrats (SD) abstained.
Opposition representatives opposed the amendments because they would reportedly cause the Municipality of Bar to lose nearly €10m for utilities.
It is interesting that the investor paid €32.5m to the municipality for the land, but due to a series of problems related to the spatial plan, which lasts for years, Montenegro has only a dump instead of the luxurious resorts in Bar.
Under the agreement, the investor will build hotels, tourist apartments, rent villas and a marina, as well as all the associated facilities of four and five star category, on 80,000 square meters in ambient beautiful bay with a decade-long pine forests in hinterland.
The agreement which was signed in 2007 is €53.7m worth.
