The story of the construction of the first 18-hole golf course with accompanying facilities in this part of the Adriatic, on Spas hill above Budva, which was promoted more than a decade and a half ago by the businessman, Honorary Consul of Belgium Jean-Luc Dumortier, will apparently remain only computer animation, because the Directorate of the Chief State Architect rejected the request for approval of the preliminary design of that attractive project.
– The Directorate of the Chief State Architect finds that the conditions for giving consent to the conceptual design of the architectural project for the construction of the golf course have not been met – it is written in the decision of that government department.
The request was submitted by Montenegro Golf Course, which is still registered in the Central Registry as a joint company of the Municipality of Budva and Belgian Honorary Consul Jean-Luc Dumortier. Dumortier, as written in the Central Register of Business Entities, is the president of the Board of Directors.
The municipality, through its company Budva holding, concluded a joint venture agreement with R.E.B. in 2012. d.o.o. of a Belgian businessman, and in the middle of March of that year, the company Montenegro Golf Course was officially registered, in which the people of Budva have 15% of the share capital, and the rest is held by the Belgian side. As written in the Central Register of Business Entities, the company R.E.B. Golf, in which Dumortier is an authorized representative, was founded by HilL Spas Budva, and it was founded by HSB for the development of real estate projects.
It is disputed that back in 2015 the municipality made a decision on the abbreviated liquidation procedure of Budva holding. However, that company still exists, the founder is the Municipal Assembly, and the board of directors includes the former leaders of the local DPS and SDP boards, many of whom are no longer alive.
The company was founded in 2008 by the Assembly of the Municipality of Budva and the company was entrusted with the management of three million square meters of municipal land, from Jaz to Buljarica, which was then estimated at EUR 250 million. The main task of the company was to encourage foreign investors to build tourist facilities on attractive land complexes. In 2009, the municipality also formed a subsidiary company, Adriatic Holding, to which it entrusted the management of 10 attractive plots, valued at around EUR 63 million. Even that company did not realize the set goal – attracting foreign partners on the stock exchanges, so at the beginning of January 2012, the voluntary liquidation procedure was initiated, and then it was officially closed. The land, transferred to two companies, is still registered in the cadastral records of the local administration, and has never been registered.
As it was pointed out on several occasions from the Municipality, it brought 30 hectares owned by the Municipality on the Spas hill to the company Montenegro golf course, in order to realize the project of building a golf course.
Even 11 years ago, there were indications that the construction of the golf course could begin. Namely, Montenegro Golf Course announced an international tender for the selection of contractors for the construction of the first sustainable golf course, and the value of the investment, as mentioned, exceeded one hundred million euros.
Back in 2006, Dumortier bought a large land complex on Spas hill, of about 600 thousand square meters, when he promoted the idea of building the first 18-hole golf course in Montenegro. The project also included two hotels, as well as accompanying facilities, and about 20 luxury villas.
However, it did not move away from that, because numerous problems followed the project all the years.
The Ministry of Justice of Montenegro allowed the extradition of the Honorary Consul of Belgium in Montenegro, Jean-Luc Dumortier, to Switzerland at the end of November last year for the purpose of conducting criminal proceedings for two crimes.
At the time, the Ministry said that they made that decision after a legally conducted extradition procedure before the High Court in Podgorica and the Court of Appeals, in which it was conclusively established that the legal prerequisites for the extradition of Dumortier were met.
