The Golden Palace hotel located in the resort town of Tsaghkadzor used to belong to Armen Avetisian, a former chief of the Armenian customs service, and his family. They offered to donate it to the state in November 2018 after the National Security Service (NSS) moved to prosecute Avetisian for illegal entrepreneurship and money laundering. The NSS subsequently did not press charges against him.
In late 2019, the government decided to privatize the hotel and almost 1.4 hectares of land surrounding it. Several auctions organized afterwards did not attract any buyers willing to meet the government’s asking price initially set at 7.5 billion drams ($15.6 million).
Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Gnel Sanosian announced on Thursday that the expensive resort, which also had a casino, has been finally sold to an Armenian company for 5 billion drams ($10.4 million). The private company, Project Inter-Invest, was the sole bidder for the property, he said.
Project Inter-Invest is involved in a wide range of business activities, notably flour production and cargo shipments. In 2019, the government granted it tax breaks for the import of 200 heavy trucks used by it.