SOFIA (Bulgaria), July 30 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian real estate developer Golf Club Ibar plans to invest over 100 million levs ($69.7 mln/51 million euro) in building a second golf course near the capital Sofia and the country's Borovets ski resort, its CEO said on Monday.
"The project will exceed 100 million levs and it calls for the development of a golf course, villas, hotel, spa and beauty centre," chief executive officer Kiril Nedev told SeeNews.
The complex will be developed near the town of Dolna Banya, about 70 kilometres southeast of the capital near Mount Rila, on a total area of 160 hectares. It will provide 300 family houses with a total built-up area of 45,000 square metres, 200 of which will be offered for sale. Revenue from the sale of the villas will partly finance the cost of the golf course.
The 18-hole golf course will be designed by Nicklaus Design, the design company of golf legend Jack Nicklaus. "It could be a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course, which would mean that Nicklaus would personally design and supervise it," said Nedev. "We hope to start work in the spring of 2008 and to complete it in a little over two years."
The company's first golf course complex, also in Dolna Banya, has an 18-hole golf course designed by Nicklaus Design and 450 villas are scheduled to be built there. "Some 85 million levs were invested in the first golf complex," Nedev said. "It will be officially opened on November 30, 2008."
Golf Club Ibar (www.golfclubibar.com) was founded as a public-private partnership by Dolna Banya Municipality and the private Bulgarian firm Lazarov & Nedev with the aim of developing the golf courses. The nearby family houses are designed to attract Western pensioners to live all year round there.
"Our target market is abroad. Eighty percent of our clients are British and Irish," Nedev said.
The low cost of living in the European Union newcomer has attracted many foreign nationals, including retired people, to the country, where they can acquire property and live well with the money they have saved or receive as pensions.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)
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