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23-story TOWER behind the THEATER, the municipality donates 1,266 m2 of public land to "Fusha Shpk"!

2024-04-01 13:50:03Investigim SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
23-story TOWER behind the THEATER, the municipality donates 1,266 m2 of public
Illustrative photo

After failing to implement the special law for the construction of the new national theater and the towers behind it, entrepreneur Shkëlqim Fusha and the Albanian government have drawn up a new plan.

A 23-story tower will be erected behind the National Theatre, on a public area of ​​1,266 m2, which the Municipality of Tirana "donates" through an agreement where it receives construction area in exchange.

Citizens has the project-idea of ​​the "Mixuse" tower of 13-24 floors that will be erected on the "Abdi Toptani" promenade.

There are no towers there. No towers will be built there. There are no towers inside, outside, behind and in the entire perimeter where they made the imaginary crawling of the victim", - declared Prime Minister Edi Rama, at the time of the artists' protests against the demolition of the National Theatre.

With a decision dated May 3 of last year, the Municipality of Tirana has given the company "Fusha shpk" 1266.6 m2 of land on "Abdi Toptani" street, and two buildings, respectively 801.4 m2 and 183 m2. One of them is the building of the decor company of Tirana.

The company "Fusha" had already offered in 2018 for the free construction of the National Theater in exchange for an area of ​​thousands of square meters where it would erect a complex of 6 towers. Currently, the Theater with a cost of 40 million euros is being built from public funds, however the entrepreneur is realizing his ambition to build on public land in the heart of the capital.

"In exchange for the benefit of 50% of the construction area (underground and above ground), which will be erected in the property of the land type owned by the Municipality of Tirana", it is stated in the decision of the Municipality of Tirana.

SON Engineering & Construction is the company that designed the construction of the tower, which has a subsidiary company "Tirana 4 Concession Company", that 32.9% of the shares are owned by the company "Fusha", while the administrator is Elti Fusha, the son of Shkëlqim Fusha.

Citizens contacted a representative of the Fusha company for a comment on this project, but the latter declined to be quoted.

The "Fusha" company has a long history of efforts to build the National Theater, which seems to be sealed with the donation of this land.

"The municipality of Tirana is implementing the anti-constitutional Fusha draft law"

In July 2021, the Constitutional Court overturned the government's decision to transfer the ownership of the National Theater to the Municipality of Tirana, considering it incompatible with the constitution and international agreements.

The agreement approved by the Municipal Council seems to have come out on top of all the institutions, as it is executing a decision which the Parliament failed to do since it was declared unconstitutional.

The Constitutional Court assessed at the time that the law, which defined a special negotiation procedure for the conclusion of the contract for the urban project and the new theater building, "violates the freedom of economic activity, the principle of the rule of law and that of decentralization and local autonomy ".

The unconstitutionality of the law was related to the fact that the state cannot give public land to a private person.

Today, the Municipality of Tirana is implementing the principle of this law by means of a Decision of the Municipal Council by forgiving public land.

On February 16, 2018, the entrepreneur Shkëlqim Fusha, through a two-sided request, intended to transform his property of only 298.1 m2 into a complex of towers of 17-21 floors, spread over 8465 m2 of public land - including the National Theater, the former headquarters of the Democratic Party and General Directorate of Prisons.

He proposed the construction of a new theater and a block of commercial buildings on the site of the National Theater.

On February 8, the first stone was laid for the demolition of the National Theater as well as the start and the first steps of the 2-year battle of artists and activists.

On that date, the artists were notified of the vacation of the building and their relocation to ArtTurbina. They suspected that behind the request for the release of the building was the plan to demolish it.

And a few days later Shkelqim Fusha's plan for the construction of the new towers and theater appeared.

On March 12, Prime Minister Edi Rama made public the government's plans for the construction of a new theater with a Public Private Partnership.

An extraordinary draft law was also presented to give the land of the National Theater to the company "Fusha shpk", without competition, which then passed in the Assembly on July 5, but was then overturned by the Constitutional Court.

But the government did not back down from demolishing the theater.

After a long resistance of activists and artists, who stayed overnight in the National Theater building, the government used a delicate moment during the pandemic and chose to demolish the building in the early hours of the morning on May 17, 2020, marking the end of the battle 2- year.

The government changed the plan and declared that the theater would now be built with public money.

"We open an international competition for 60 days and then after announcing the winner we start the construction of the National Theater of Tirana with the project of Bjarke Ingels, with the Danish project and we will have perhaps the most modern theater in the Balkans", said the head of the Municipality of Tirana Erion Veliaj .

But it took 800 days, a series of broken deadlines and broken promises to open the competition for the construction of the new Theater, because the work to build it is another story.

On August 15, 2020, on the 100th anniversary of Tirana, the capital, Veliaj announced the start of the works and confirmed the approved project to be implemented, of the Bjarke Ingels Group studio.

While on June 29, 2021, Veliaj announced that the National Council of the Territory approved the permit for the construction of the new Theater.

On December 21, 2022, in a ceremony closed to the public and the media, Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj together with Prime Minister Edi Rama, representatives of the government and artists positioned in their favor, inaugurated the start of work on the new theater.

The first stone was laid that would mark the start of the works, but for a long time it was the only stone laid, because the machines appeared at the beginning of 2024 in the theater square.

According to Prime Minister Rama and Mayor Veliaj, work stalled due to the pandemic, the earthquake and the war in Ukraine.

On April 25, 2022, at the international Culture Weeks conference, Rama blamed natural disasters and the situation in Ukraine for not starting the works./ Citizens Channel


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