Bulgaria’s cabinet decided Wednesday to cross off deals for a partnership with media tycoon Irena Krasteva in several top real estate projects owned by the National Revenue Agency.

In 2008, the Stanishev Cabinet voted in favor of turning the four buildings (some of which are still under construction) from public state property into public private property, i.e. to set up a joint stock company together with “IPK Rodina” (“Rodina Publishing House”) owned by Irena Krasteva through the apportionment of the real estate, in which the state had a minority share.

With its Wednesday’s decision, the Borisov government made the deal void by restoring public state property status of the four premises. Under Bulgarian law public state property cannot be sold but public private property can be involved in all kinds of regular transactions.

The top real estate properties of the NRA are located at 131 Tsarigradsko Shose Blvd – which was supposed to become the new building hosting the Agency but is only partially completed, at 10 “September 6” Str, 52 Dondukov Blvd, and 21 Aksakov Str.

The deal between the Stanishev government and Irena Krasteva was that her company would keep the downtown properties at 10 “September 6” Str, 52 Dondukov Blvd, and 21 Aksakov Str. in exchange for completing fully the building at Tsarigradsko Shose Blvd with an all-out built-up area of 50 000 square meters.

At the end of July 2009, the “United Bulgarian Newspapers” company represented by Irena Krasteva, which was the firm formally involved in the NRA real estate deal with the state, decided it did not want to participate in the project any longer. Thus, there was no reason for the Borisov government to maintain the public private status of the properties in question, the government press service said.

According to various media reports, Irena Krasteva and her “New Bulgarian Media Group” which bought out a number of local in Bulgaria over the recent years, including cable TV stations and newspapers, is connected with the ethnic Turkish party DPS (“Movement for Rights and Freedoms”).

novinite.com