January 19, 2018
The Slovenian Environment Agency (ARSO) has issued company Greenbay Tivoli a permit for its EUR 70m luxurious development to be built on the site of Kolizej in the centre of Ljubljana, the newspaper Dnevnik reported on Friday January 19, 2018, with the STA further summarizing the story.
Greenbay Tivoli, which is owned by South African fund Greenbay Properties, obtained the permit for Schellenburg Villa with 15 flats and Schellenburg Palace with an office tower and a block of flats with 112 apartments.
Greenbay Properties bought the plot on the site of Kolizej, an Austro-Hungarian-era army housing complex that was pulled down in 2011, in August 2016.
At the time it said it would pay EUR 15.4m for the 9,932 square metre plot. However, the business newspaper Finance reported the price was EUR 18.8m.
The fund bought the land from Tivoli projekt, one of the companies owned by businessman Jože Anderlič.
Anderlič sold the land after giving up on his plan to build an extravagant complex with an opera house, housing and office towers and a shopping mall.
While Greenbay Properties had thought the construction would have begun earlier, it took a while to secure the environmental permit.
According to Dnevnik's unofficial information, the South Africans are therefore considering pulling out of the project.
According to Finance, the south Africans are about to sell the plot, reportedly to Industrieliegenschaftenverwaltung, a company based in Vienna.
Data from the Slovenian Agency for Legal Records show that the Austrian company set up company ILAG Tivoli last December. Its directors are two Austrians and Anderlič's wife Tina Anderlič Jelenc.
According to Finance, the Schellenburg project would thus be financed by the Austrians and built by Anderlič's company.
ARSO has explained the delay in deciding on the application for the permit by referring to a large number of similar cases waiting to be processed.
The agency received the application in early March 2017 and started processing it in mid June, which is later than set down by the law.
Greenbay is also the owner of the Koper shopping mall Planet Tuš, a property of grocer Tuš.
