Mayor Karácsony: Budapest can baulk Grand Budapest project on Rákosrendező
Budapest has pre-emption rights over the entire Rákosrendező area, Gergely Karácsony, the city’s mayor, said on Facebook on Sunday.
Regarding a browfield area in Budapest’s 14th district, which is subject to conflicting development plans by the government and the municipality, Karácsony said the legal situation was “clear and unequivocal”.
The seller, the Hungarian state, informed the buyers in the sale and purchase agreement that two Budapest-owned companies have pre-emption rights over the entire area, he said.
The purchase contract stipulates that the investor must pay the first installment of the purchase price within ten days of the Hungarian state presenting declarations waiving the right of pre-emption or the deadline for exercising pre-emption rights “has passed uneventfully”, he said. “That deadline won’t pass uneventfully,” Karácsony added.
The mayor said the current owner, the Hungarian state, “has allowed this especially valuable area to decay and be polluted for decades.”
He said it was time that development started according to “principles espoused by practically the entire profession of city development”, which he said had been strengthened by the latest decision of the Budapest assembly on the matter.
Mayor Karácsony backs Park City concept
“The Park City concept”, he said, promoted “affordable housing and a lot of green [areas] for many, rather than luxury for a few.”
Should the state violate the pre-emption rights of Budapest Kozmuvek (BKM), the Budapest utility company will immediately sue both the Hungarian seller and the UAE buyer, “the Arab billionaire”, Karácsony said.
BKM will pay for the area from the price of Budapesti Hulladekhasznosito, a waste management plant, he said. “We are prepared for attempts from the Hungarian government to circumvent our pre-emption rights,” and will use all legal remedies to prevent that, he said.
The Budapest Assembly will debate the proposal on the matter on Wednesday. He said councillors “will have to decide whether they are serving Budapest’s future or [giving in to] the government’s machinations”.
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