Government sells Golden Palace Hotel in Tsaghkadzor

YEREVAN, February 11. /ARKA/. The Armenian government has sold the Golden Palace Hotel in the resort town of Tsaghkadzor, Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Minister Gnel Sanosyan said in a Facebook post. He said the starting price was set at 5 billion drams (about $10 million).

"One bid was submitted to the tender commission by Project Inter-Invest LLC, which offered the 5 billion dram price, promising also to invest another 4.5 billion drams in the next five years in the hotel’s improvement," Sanosyan said.

The government had already tried to auction the hotel, which was estimated to cost 7.5 billion drams (about $15.8 million), but the price was cut down to absence of bidders.

The decision to auction the hotel was made by the government in 2019 November. The Golden Palace Hotel located in the resort town of Tsaghkadzor belonged to Armen Avetisyan, a former chief of the Armenian customs service. Avetisyan offered to donate it to the state after the National Security Service (NSS) moved to prosecute him for illegal entrepreneurship and money laundering.

The Project Inter-Invest was founded in 2002. The company owns a number of enterprises and offices in Yerevan, Yeghvard, Masis, Charentsavan, Artashat and Nor-Geghi. It is also engaged in cargo transportation.

According to the State Revenue Committee, the company was 357th in the list of 1000 largest corporate tax payers in 2021 having paid more than 651mln drams in taxes. ($1 - 479.04 drams) -0