Some Riga City Council deputies are protesting that the suggested Hotel de Rome auction starting price of LVL 9 million (12.86 million) is too low, Dienas Bizness writes. The starting price was determined as LVL 21.09 million only a year ago, but property prices have fallen substantially since then, throwing an element of confusion into the process. The Municipal Property and Privatization Committee is hesitating to confirm the assessment, which was given by the real estate appraisal firm Eiroeksperts. However, the current lessee of the hotel, Reho, considers nine million to be a high price, while the Estonian hotel operator Baltic Hotel Group has agreed to participate in an auction with this starting price. Janis Lasmanis, chairman of the board of Reho, a joint venture in which the municipality has 50 percent of the shares, thinks that the 16-year-old Hotel de Rome building is now dated and substantial resources must be invested in it, for example into the air conditioning and ventilation systems.

 

Dienas Bizness, 2009-02-25