Two years ago György Haris hoped to redevelop the area around District II’s Marczibányi tér so that it would include Hungary’s first Michelin-star restaurant (a title since taken) as well as an 18 unit five-star apartment complex, a wellness center, a wedding room and a 400 square meter “wine temple”, origo.hu reported two years ago. Unsurprisingly, things have not worked out quite the way Haris hoped they would.
The investment, estimated to cost Ft 3 billion (€10.9 million), has been tied up in court ever since due to legal challenges by an environmental group over plans to redevelop the shooting range building, index.hu reported in February. Consequently, the renovation plans have been put on hold, and after several break-ins, the property has to be guarded at a cost of several million forints per year, meaning that not only is it not making any money, it’s actually losing it.
As a way to offset these costs, the developer planned to open a romkocsma (“ruin pub”) on the site, but plans for this have also been scuttled, as hetivalasz.hu reports that the site has been (for the time being at least) transformed into a parking lot, meaning until the courts decide on the area’s fate, Haris will have to continue dreaming about his field.
“They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot”
That’s odd. There’s construction activity
at the site. Perhaps you could actually
go there at personally check it out.
Yes. They’re constructing a parking lot. This is but one example of a million others where the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
I have had a taste of Hungarian bureaucracy and business deals that have gone sour because of the lack of understanding between what constituted as a business arrangement under the red flag of communism (corruption-based and full of selfish priorities) and that of a free market enterprise that should be allowed to flourish on its own merit.
communism? noooooo….where????