Tbilisi Mayor: Hotel will not be built in Vake Park

The multi-storey Hotel Budapest will not be built in one of the oldest recreational parks of Tbilisi, Vake Park, announces Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze.

Kaladze said that an agreement has already been reached with investors.

Today, we have met with the founders of the Budapest Hotel. I would like to congratulate you: Vake Park has won. I would like to congratulate Tbilisi and Tbilisians, we have managed to reach an agreement and nothing will be built on this territory in Vake Park”, Kaladze said.

A meeting between Tbilisi City Hall and Hotel Budapest investors was held yesterday. Photo: Tbilisi City Hall. 

How did the Hotel Budapest affair begin?

Back on 24 July 2013, then-Mayor of Tbilisi Gigi Ugulava issued a special zoning permit which increased urban construction parameters and allowed for the construction of a hotel on the territory of Vake Park (68 Chavchavadze Avenue).

Later on 20 September of 2013, Tbilisi Architecture Service issued a building permit for a hotel on the same territory. 

According to the permits, the investor was allowed to construct a building up to 30 meters in height in Vake Park – that is, an eight- or nine-storey building. 

The land was almost entirely dug out for the foundation and the territory was fenced off. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

From the very beginning of the affair, activists have protested the building’s construction. 

Profile pictures on Georgian social media have appeared with the inscription, “I defend Vaku Park” in Georgian. 

Green Alternative, a Georgian non-governmental organisation, requested that the permits be rescinded back in 2014. A Tbilisi city court partially found with the plaintiff two years later and abolished Ugulava’s decree. 

On 12 April of 2016, Green Alternative requested that a complete ban on construction at the address in Vaku Park be put in place. However, construction companies Tiflis Kostava and Graali lodged an appeal on 28 May 2018. 

The Court of Appeals granted their appeal and annulled the decision of the lower instance court.

On 16 January 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that the Green Alternate cassation complaint was ‘inadmissible’, leaving the previous instance decision unchanged.

Stencil painted on the fence of the construction site 'warning' visitors of the area of its takeover by an investor. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

After that, Green Alternative published an open letter to Tbilisi Mayor, in which a group of civil society organisations, urban planners, art experts and ordinary citizens appealed to Kaladze for help. The letter reads that the court judgment goes against the public’s interest, and threatens the legal achievements of the environmentalists’ five-year struggle, and may serve as an unwise precedent in the future. 

The construction of a hotel or any other building in Vake Park is unacceptable for the majority of the Tbilisi public. Such an approach towards the issue will cause irreparable harm to the already critical environmental situation of the capital and ignore public demands”, reads the letter.

Construction site banner shows the project details of Hotel Budapest. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

Tbilisi City Hall’s decision

At this week’s government meeting Kaladze announced that Vake Park was closed to construction, but agreement had still not been reached with the investors.

However today, Kaladze finally announced that negotiations with the investors have already been completed and an agreement had also been reached. However, details about the deal have not been announced.