Dozens of guesthouses have been built or rebuilt in Jūrmala in the last seven years, but most of the buildings do not receive guests anyway, reports “lsm.lv”. After construction, a large part of the buildings are sold in estimated parts as apartment properties. The management of the Jūrmala City Council rejects the accusations and only supports this practice. Why are residential houses being built in Jūrmala instead of dozens of guest houses for years?
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An apartment building instead of a guest house
In Jūrmala, Asaros, in a grove of pine trees, next to the seashore, there is a four-story house with large windows that open a view of the beach. The exclusive building at the entrance to the beach on Dzimtenes Street 1 was built more than ten years ago. At that time, millionaire Aleksandrs Osokins and his business partner Ilze Zosule received a construction permit from the Jūrmala City Council to build a guest house in Asari. It was developed by the company “Jūrmala Land Fund” represented by both.
Meanwhile, exclusive apartments have already started to be sold at this address. The Jūrmala Protection Society raised an alarm about this, which appealed to the Administrative District Court, disputing the building permit, because an apartment building is being built instead of a guest house.
According to the area plan, it is forbidden to build it in this place.
The dispute and legal proceedings were ended by a tripartite agreement. It was signed by the property developer “Jūrmala Land Fund”, the Jūrmala Defense Society and the Jūrmala City Council in the person of the then mayor Gats Trukšņis (Green Party of Latvia).
It was the green light for the construction of the guest house. But there were several rules. The most important of them: the developer promised that the building would not be converted or divided into condominiums after construction.
Is there a guest house there today – a building open to the public?
The security guard of the building, who was contacted by Latvijas Radio, was able to say that there are apartments in the building and they are not rented out to guests. He said that there are a total of ten apartments in the house and as far as he knows, all of them have been sold. “They’re going to their apartments,” said the security guard.
So, contrary to what was promised, an apartment building has been built instead of a guest house on Dzimtenes Street 1.
Photo: LSM.LV
The building was put into operation on June 2, 2014, and a year later “Jūrmala Land Fund” sold the supposed shares to one of its former owners – the company “Global Media Marketing” for more than a million euros. Its sole beneficiary is Ilze Zosule. On the other hand, the company “Jūrmala Land Fund” was liquidated on January 20, 2016.
After that, over several years, more than ten private individuals, mostly from Russia, bought and resold apartments in the house. Transaction amounts range from 250 to 600 thousand euros for the purchase of the intended part.
“Those who are the owners from Russia have not been here all this time,” said the guard.
The land registry shows that the owners include two people from Switzerland and Germany. Ilze Zosule is also one of the co-owners.
According to the tripartite agreement, the guest house should also have a cafe and a spa area. I ask the guard about it. In the summer, an outdoor terrace and a tent are put up, where a cafe is set up, said the security guard, pointing to a patch of land on the beach, which is outside the courtyard of the house. But the spa area, according to the guard, is the sea.
How could the property developer “Jūrmala Land Fund” not fulfill the main requirements of the tripartite agreement – not to transform the building after construction and not to divide it into apartment properties?
Co-owner Ilze Zosule agreed to a conversation with Latvijas Radio, but canceled it an hour before the meeting, stating that she owns part of the object as a private person. She is a member of the board of the charity organization “Hospiss.lv”, but she is a lawyer by education, who partly owns the company “Neimane un Zosule”, which deals with legal and financial consultations.
It is interesting that Aleksandrs Osokins, co-owner of the “Jūrmala Land Fund”, which was liquidated eight years ago, is one of the owners of the company “Sventovit Group”, which, among other things, is engaged in the retail trade of cosmetics and toiletries. Its legal address is located in a residential building at 77-12 Krišjāņa Valdemāra Street, across from the territory of the 1st Riga Hospital.
The second owner of “Sventovit Group” is Sergej Osokin. Since February 21 of this year, he has been a member of the board of the “Osokinu Foundation”, which organizes cultural and artistic events, including in the field of music education. “Osokinu Fund” is also located at the same address in Krišjāņa Valdemāra Street. The other board members in the “Osokinu Foundation” are Andrejs Osokins and Daiga Bināne.
Since March 20, 2018, Sergej Osokin and Alexander Osokin are also the real beneficiaries of the companies “Shwartz” and “Units 1A”. The last of them is registered in the same building in Vecrīga, Audēju street 14, where both Ilze Zosules’ law firm and the charity organization “Hospiss.lv” are located. On the other hand, the company “Shwartz” is registered at the already mentioned Krišjāņa Valdemāra street 77 – 12.
Construction in the dunes
Uldis Kronblūms, a member of the board of the Jūrmala Protection Society and an opposition member of the Jūrmala City Council, together with his associates, has been fighting for years to eradicate fake guest houses in Jūrmala, including those on Asaru Beach.
“This is the place where we drew our bitter experience when we were told what are you against everyone, and we concluded this peace agreement in good faith. (..) We see in the Land Register that it is all being sold in parts against all promises,” Kronblum said.
In his opinion, such a scheme in Jurmala has been flourishing and prospering for years. Together with Kronblum, Latvijas Radio visited more than a dozen addresses in Jūrmala, where guest houses or recreation complexes have been built in the last ten years.
“It seems to me that there is no sign of a guest house here. We don’t see any ads. We can’t see anything!” said Kronbloom.
All these buildings have become apartment buildings.
“Here again, the principle is that we built a large structure in the dunes. The reasoning was that we need to rest here and so on,” said the opposition councilor.
In the specific places, the city’s territorial planning does not allow the construction of multi-apartment residential buildings. But in the construction board they are coordinated as guest houses. “I assume that one of the owners of the part of the apartment, if he does not live here, has rented it on Airbnb. But that goal and its function have not been achieved for something to boil here, to happen and so on,” said Kronblum.
How many such buildings are there in Jurmala that have been transformed in the last ten years?
“Maybe I’m wrong, but it could be twenty, maybe even thirty,” said Kronblum, who is concerned about the practice in the resort town.
“I am convinced that there are those who can get such projects through, and there are those who may not be able to get through such projects. I really don’t know how this whole mechanism works, but you can’t help but see that what is declared is not achieved. You can’t repeat dozens of times that everything is fine, that we set up the territories because we need guests there, but then be completely different in life!”
According to him, the deputies in the Jūrmala municipality are too tolerant of the development ideas of entrepreneurs, which do not always materialize as they initially promise. “If you manage to convince the members of the city council that there is some piece of your forest dunes or the historical center of the city, that something bigger and higher should be built there, then you have already earned sometimes even millions.
But if all this is done at the expense of degrading natural territories, degrading the cultural and historical environment, then it is bad.”
Photo: LSM.LV
Apartments for sale at the address of the guest house
By entering the addresses of several guest houses in the Internet search engine, you can easily find offers to buy apartments.
One of the freshest objects is at Strēlnieku prospekt 42, Jūrmala. The building was put into operation only a few months ago, and you can buy a property in it for almost 300 thousand euros. True, the ad mentions that the apartment is for sale, not the supposed part, as it is in reality.
“Amber residence” advertisement:
“Offers to buy a 3-room apartment in an exclusive project, located at Strēlnieku prospekt 42, in a quiet part of Jurmala. Walking distance from the sea. Great choice of place to live!”
When calling the real estate seller, Latvijas Radio found out in a short conversation that there are 27 apartments in this guest house and five have already been sold.
The State Construction Control Office has received complaints about the Strēlnieku Prospekt 42 building from Jurmala residents who say that apartments are being sold in the guest house. The office, however, has not gone under control yet, because the living spaces have not been furnished. Therefore, it is not yet possible to determine for what purpose the apartments will be used – for guest accommodation or long-term living.
The Council sees the problem
Does the municipal construction board follow up on whether the original design of the building – a guest house – really works in real life or only on paper?
Vita Zvejniece, head of the Jurmala City Planning Department, to whom Latvijas Radio sent a list of more than ten objects before the interview, said that she found rental offers in some of them on such websites as “Airbnb” and “Booking.com”. “Well, there’s this offer. So people, including those who are private owners, use this opportunity and rent out these premises,” said Zvejniece.
Do all these buildings really work as guesthouses? “These are guest rooms. How often and for how long, and who stays there, we cannot answer that right now! People act in the way that is more economically reasonable for them,” said Zvejniece.
According to the Jūrmala construction board, more than 30 guest houses have been built or rebuilt in the last seven years. Three of them have been changed to multi-apartment buildings after the entrepreneur’s application and the municipality’s acceptance. The other buildings are still formally guesthouses.
“Business is changing. Will we be able to force an entrepreneur to do something where he sees a loss in the end? Well, I guess patrons don’t build buildings anymore.
The city will most likely review where the hotels are, where the apartments are allowed. It is important for us that there are people in the city.
We will not bring them by force, whether we call it a hotel or a guest house. We can sit at empty premises and wait for someone to come to them,” said the head of the Urban Planning Department.
So we have to conclude – if the city territory planning also prohibits the construction of multi-storey residential buildings in certain places, the construction board sees no problem in circumventing such a ban and confronting entrepreneurs.
What does the management of Jurmala council say about it? Both Jūrmala Mayor Rita Sproģe (Green and Farmers’ Union) and her deputy Jānis Lediņš (Greens and Farmers’ Union) refused an interview about this. However, Sproģe councilor Gatis Truksnis is ready to express his opinion.
Latvijas Radio asked Truksnim about guesthouses that turn into multi-apartment buildings. “This is not about unauthorized use as such. For example, we make a pig farm in an apartment or a casino in a hospital. This is an unauthorized use,” said Truksnis.
He expressed similar arguments as the head of the construction board. “Don’t look for a hook where there isn’t one! It is important for the city that the object lives, that there is light in the windows, that taxes are paid. The fact that we’re going to say no, go and throw everybody out and not let them sell… I don’t know. We are not a country – we cannot not allow. (..) Ah, you even live there? Get out of there! Guests only and Booking.com only. Don’t you have guests? Going bankrupt? Well, nothing, anyway, it will be here… Then there won’t be anything either,” said Truksnis.
Arbitrary exploitation
What does the law say – may or may not live in a guest house for a long time? “Basically, this building is not intended for permanent living. It is temporary guest accommodation. It is a commercial object. (..)
If these objects are used for permanent living, then this is arbitrary exploitation, but temporarily they can, of course, stay.
The operation does not correspond to the intended use. There may also be apartment hotels, where the duration is not five or two days. You can also rent a room in the hotel for a month. If you can pay, then also for the next month. It is not prohibited,” explained Andris Lazarevs, Deputy Director of the Construction Policy Department of the Ministry of Economy.
Also, it is not forbidden to sell the supposed parts in the guest house, as is the case in most of the objects in Jūrmala, which were covered by the Latvian Radio program “Open Files”.
Themes
Tags: PHOTOS VIDEOS paper guest house reality apartment forbidden zone dunes disturbing trend Jurmala
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