November 26 (SeeNews) - Macedonia on Monday offered for the second time for sale 15,877 square metres of land in its resort Ohrid on which a five-star hotel should be built, setting the starting price at 47.6 million denars ($1.2 million/770,000 euro).
Austrian diversified real estate company Soravia Group together with the Hilton chain of hotels won the first tender for the land plot offering to pay 908,000 euro ($1.2 million) but the deal was cancelled.
“The Austrian Group did not pay the price for the land plot on time," the Transport Ministry official in charge of the tender, Dimitar Dimovski, told SeeNews.
The auction will be held on January 18. Bids will be accepted by January 15, the Transport Ministry said in a statement.
Only hotel chain operators, or franchisees of hotel chains of at least 250 four- or five-star hotels are allowed to participate. They are required to provide a 500,000 euro bank guarantee.
The best bidder would be required to build the hotel within two years from receiving the building permit, which will be granted within six months after the sale of the land.
The city of Ohrid is the most popular tourist destination in the ex-Yugoslav country of two million people. There are about 10 big hotels in Ohrid, among which only one five-star hotel, the Metropol Lake Resort.
(1 euro = 61.8218 Macedonian denars)