Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex prepared to assert its rights before the European Court if needed

YEREVAN, August 25. /ARKA/. The management of Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex in Yerevan intends to assert its in courts, including the European Court of Human Rights, press secretary of the complex Koriun Grigoryan told reporters on Friday.

Armenia’s government decided to take over the complex against outstanding debt of the company at its meeting on August 21. The company’s loan debt to the government is 10 billion 207 million drams (about 25mln dollars); other liabilities bring the total debt to 10bln 400mln drams (25.5mln dollars). 

Grigoryan said they expected the complex will be put up for a forced sale several times to make its value drop to the debt size. He also pointed to numerous violations of the laws. The company was also refused to extend the operational term, despite the respective provision in the contract, he said

“We are ready to pay off our debts if we are given a chance to extend the operational term as per the contract”, Grigoryan said.

Another breach is that the staff was forced to leave the building, but they should have been notified in advance instead and made leave only in case of refusal to leave, he said. 

The press secretary stressed the bailiff service took into account only the cost of the area, but left out cultural and historical value of the building, the investments made and the modernization done.

From the beginning, the investor was has not been considering the complex as a commercial project, but paid the price and invested $42 million instead of $10 million planned. The investor is ready to operate the complex if the authorities give him a chance, Grigoryan said. 

“We will not be preventing the state services from doing their job, but will not give up adjudicating our rights to achieve a fair verdict on the issue”, Grigoryan said.

The writ of execution from the first instance court of Centre and Nork-Marash districts said earlier the Sports and Concert Complex closed joint stock company had to pay 10,207,755,909.51 drams (about 25 mln dollars) to the Republic of Armenia budget. 

On April 15 2014 the bailiff service decided to commission an expert evaluation. Experts assessed the property at 25.8 billion drams (about 63.3mln dollars), and the bailiff service made a decision on forced sale through an online auction. The starting price was set at 75% of the assessed value, i.e. at 19.35 billion drams (47.4mln dollars).

There are other proceedings for enforcement against the Sports and Concert Complex worth a total of 511,992,968 drams. 

Total area of the Complex is 46,335.7 square meters, without additional premises and the swimming pool. There are 95,595.87 square meters of dwelling area in the territory. The lot is a secured property. 

The complex was put up for a forced auction six times, but has not been sold. No bid was offered on the last auction (ended on August 21) either.

The Karen Demirchian Sports and Concert Complex was built in 1983. In October 2005, the Complex was sold to Russia’s BAMO Holdings for $5.7 million. The company obliged to reconstruct the complex. The reconstruction took almost three years and cost about $42 million.

The building is considered a “masterpiece” of later Soviet architecture. –0—