Serious omissions in the application to construct a hotel in Larnaca by Russian businessman Nicolai Potapenko, who launched a protest outside the Presidential Palace this week after waiting seven years for a building permit, have been found by the derogations council, it announced on Tuesday.
Potapenko, who has been living in Cyprus for 30 years, started a demonstration outside the Presidential Palace on Monday carrying placards saying ‘Cyprus is not for legal investors. Waiting 7 years to issue one licence’.
He reportedly applied for a building permit at the site of the Hobos Steak House restaurant on Larnaca’s Finikoudes seafront seven years ago, and to date has not secured the required permit.
At the time, he bought the space which houses the restaurant and the parking space behind it.
However, Larnaca Mayor Andreas Vyras responded by saying there is a good reason for the delay. He told daily Politis that Potapenko had changed plans for the development four times.
“He wants to build a 90-metre tower at Finikoudes, so he has to go through the derogations council and do an environmental study,” Vyras said.
He added that the latest plan for the site was submitted by the businessman in February this year.
The derogations council is an independent five-member committee that submits to cabinet its suggestions about large developments after studying and assessing applications for building permits that deviate from town planning provisions.
It said on Tuesday that it found serious omissions in the information it received regarding Potapenko’s request for the creation of a large hotel development “in the sensitive coastal area of Finikoudes, within Larnaca’s central shopping area and the urban centre.”
The application, the board said, concerns a 27-storey hotel complex while initially the development proposed was as a mixed tourist, commercial and mainly residential development including a small urban hotel, which was allowed under the provisions of the current development plan.
“Recently the Russian investor changed the plans and proposes a large pure tourism development, for which a deviation is now required, on the one hand due to a change in the use of the development and on the other due to the exceedance of the building coefficient (in addition to the incentives from which the development seeks to benefit),” the board said.
It added that, following a meeting with the Larnaca municipality, additional important information is expected so that the board can assess the proposed development, for which a public consultation is also needed due to its size.
The board also said that it usually responds within 15 days from the day it receives an application and in cases a public consultation is necessary, it schedules it immediately.
In 2018, it was reported that Potapenko had already pumped about €1.5m into the project, which was to include a 20-floor luxury hotel, a spa, conference centre, apartments, commercial units, cinema and rooftop restaurant.
According to Majesty Real Estate, Potapenko was close to finalising a deal then.
“The project of two skyscrapers called LarnakaTower has been discussed for four years by the Russian investor Nikolai Potapenko and the municipality of Larnaca,” the estate agent reported on Facebook.
“As a result of recent negotiations, construction will be given green light no later than the end of July. It is planned that, with a positive response from the mayor’s office, the construction of the first high-rise will begin in April 2019, and all the work will be held for no longer than 2.5 years,” it added.
The plan was to build two skyscrapers, one a five-star hotel with 100 rooms and underground parking.
“The second skyscraper will become a repository of apartments and offices,” Majesty Real Estate reported.