City to exit hotel business

RIGA - The Riga City Council’s Property Committee members on June 21 approved a privatization bill for Hotel de Rome, which states that the hotel will be sold at auction, and the starting price will be set at 6.8 million lats (9.7 million euros), reports news agency LETA. Compared to the ‘wealthy years,’ the starting price for the hotel has been reduced more than threefold.

Olafs Pulks, deputy head of the New Era party at the Riga City Council, said that the bill must be returned to the Privatization Commission for a repeated review. “If the hotel’s value had not been set that high back then, the Riga City Council would have never suggested privatization of these properties,” said Pulks, noting that now the starting price has been slashed and the hotel’s managers have been given the right of first refusal.

Four committee members supported Pulks, but the other ten voted for the bill, therefore the privatization motion will be forwarded to the Riga City Council’s Presidium, which will decide whether it will be voted on by the full city council meeting.
The first privatization bill for Hotel de Rome was approved by the Riga City Council in the spring of 2008, when the starting price for the property was set at 21.09 million lats. A year ago, the price was reduced to 10.85 million lats.

The property includes the hotel building of 7,721 square meters in floor space, a basement with a total area of 418 square meters, and a land plot of 1,906 square meters in area. The Latvian-German joint venture Reho will have the right of first refusal at the auction.