Sat, Jul 04 2009
Terra Tour Services, a subsidiary of Agrohold JSC, will invest 71.8 million leva in Pravets Golf & Spa Club, to be located near the town of Pravets, some 50km north-eastern of Sofia, profit.bg reported on March 10.
The vacation compound will comprise a five-star hotel, a sports complex, an 18-hole golf course, a casino, a modern spa centre, apartments, single-family houses and luxury villas. There will be a lot of nooks within the resort, which will be denoted as "private" areas and will have limited access, restricted to club members.
Terra Tour Services has been granted a first-class investment certificate for the project and has 10-year experience with investing and operation in recreational and residential establishments. Its parent company Agrohold is owned by Valentin Zlatev, chief executive of Russian oil company Lukoil's Bulgarian arm.
The golf course project was designed by Harradine-Golf. Set up in 1929, it has developed more than 200 golf courses in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle east. Pravets Golf & Spa Club will feature an 18-hole Professional Golf Association (PGA) standard 72-par, 6 510 m-long golf course.
The hotel complex, the villas, apartments and houses were designed by Proarh Ltd architectural studio. Construction will start in June this year and is expected to finish by 2011.
The project will be financed by the Bulgarian Bank for Development, and the Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas, or Jessica Programme, although the report has so far failed to reveal the total cost of the vast enterprise.
The strategic plan envisages the conservation of the nature "for decades ahead", and it was formulated by a municipal team headed by professor Ivan Nikiforov, backed by Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev.
Once the overhaul and reconstruction of the Sofia–Vidin line is complete, it will cut travel time to three hours, as the train will be able to reach speeds of up to 160 km/h, shortening the journey to three hours.
Marriott however has made it clear that is not interested in investing in construction, but rather to occupy and manage existing buildings. Its strategy is to obtain management contracts.
Investors realise that it’s not viable to have a building remaining empty over the course of a year – so it's better for them to employ more flexibility to offset that loss.