150 million euros of public property is given to the private

Less than a month after the approval of legal changes that allow the Ministry of Economy, Culture and Innovation to privatize the properties of state institutions, the National Spatial Planning Agency has opened a call for construction in several key areas in the capital. The call envisages the construction of two new towers by the private sector, in exchange for the construction of offices for several state institutions. The market value for the towers reaches at least 150 million euros.

The National Spatial Planning Agency has opened a competition for the "development" of public property, less than a week after the Council of Ministers decided to transfer some state properties to the responsibility of the Albanian Investment Corporation

Development in this case means construction in some areas of Tirana on public land by the private sector, giving the latter the opportunity to benefit from property in exchange for the construction of offices for some Albanian institutions.

"The result of this competition will be project-ideas for new administrative centers in Tirana as well as parallel projects in the form of private developments, which will be built as part of the contract with the winning partner." - is written in the announcement of the AKPT.

Private developments mean the construction of two towers in Tirana.

The first tower, expected to be up to 41 stories, with 52,500 square meters of construction area will be built on Jean D'Arc Boulevard, on the existing Educational Services Center property.

In return, the government will take over the construction of 22,000 square meters of office space for the Paris Municipality.

The second tower is expected to be up to 40 floors, or 40,000 square meters and will be built on Muhamet Gjollesha street, on the public property where the Property Management Agency is today.

In addition to being public property, in this case the map where the competition area is marked seems to include at least two buildings that are private property.

In exchange for the construction of this tower on public property, the state has requested 15,000 square meters of office space in Zogu i Zi, where the State Cadastre Agency is located.

So in total, up to 92,500 square meters of towers and 37,000 square meters of state offices will be built.

To calculate the value of the construction that the private person is invited to carry out on public property through this call of the AKPT, it is enough to look at the reference prices for the Municipality of Tirana according to the cadastral areas.

The planned tower on Jean D'Arc Boulevard belongs to Unit 3 of the Municipality, area 3/1 where the reference price is 98,500 ALL per square meter. While the second tower, planned on Muhamet Gjollesha street, belongs to unit 7, area 7/2 where the reference price is 123,400 lek per square meter.

Based on these prices, the value of the 41-story tower on Jean D'Arc Boulevard exceeds ALL 5 billion. The same goes for the value of the second tower, the 40-story one on Muhamet Gjollesha street.

According to the call, these two towers will be used for offices, apartments, services, retail and underground parking. According to the reference prices of the Albanian state, "the price per square meter of construction area for economic activity, trade and service in the Municipality of Tirana is 2 (two) times higher than the price of residential areas".

This means that, through this competition, the Albanian state is giving the private sector at least 150 million euros for construction in public property.

This value can go even more after two or three years when the works are finished, explains the economic expert Eduart Gjokutaj.

The former adviser to the cabinet of the Ministry of Infrastructure emphasizes another benefit.

It underlines that government contracts in cases of alienation of state facility and government-owned land with a private and government ownership offer unique opportunities and sustainability that can have a transformative impact for businesses that invest money from different sources.

By securing government contracts, Gjokutaj explains, businesses have the potential to tap into a stable and diversified revenue stream, tap into profitable markets, and seize the opportunity for long-term success.

But this benefit for the private individual, in non-democratic countries, is accompanied by a risk.

The competition, opened on June 4, is expected to end in September.

At a time when Tirana is considered overbuilt and towers have been continuously added over the last few years, it seems that the government will not stop by starting their construction even on state properties. The call of the National Agency for Territorial Planning does exactly this when it invites private individuals to build private towers in key locations of the city of Tirana, in exchange for the benefit of building buildings for state offices./ Faktoje.al