Incredible! Upon hearing the news, even Atlas would throw the Earth off his shoulders! The administration of the capital is looking for a buyer for the hugely valuable building complex of the town hall, which is under monument protection, Index has learned. Mayor Gergely Karácsony has already come up with many ideas for the utilization of the town hall, but the sale of the most valuable property of the Budapest City Municipality, however, seemed unthinkable until now.
The City Municipality led by Gergely Karácsony is preparing to sell the town hall building, Index learned. According to their information
BUSINESS CIRCLES CLOSE TO THE COALITION LEADING BUDAPEST HAVE ALREADY TAKEN THE FIRST STEPS TO SELL CERTAINLY THE MOST VALUABLE REAL ESTATE IN THE CAPITAL.
Gergely Karácsony's plan is also surprising because the financial deputy mayor of the outgoing Fidesz city government, Gábor Bagdy, previously stated that the new city government had access to approximately HUF 180 billion in resources when taking over the management of Budapest.
The newspaper writes that the construction of the grandiose building complex in question, located on a huge plot in the heart of the city center, was started in the 18th century based on the plans of the Austrian architect of Italian origin, Anton Erhard Martinelli. The building initially functioned as a military hospital and later had a barracks in it, and then in 1894 it was used as a town hall.
The town hall's patina building is under monument protection and lies in a world heritage protection zone frequented by tourists, and a specially protected archaeological site, the old city wall, runs through the plot.
Currently bounded by Városháza utca, Gerglóczy utca, Károly körút and Bárczy István utca, located at the topographic number 24357,
A PLOT OF ALMOST FORTY THOUSAND SQUARE METERS IS ONE OF THE MOST VALUABLE REAL ESTATE IN BUDAPEST, THE USE OF WHICH COULD BRING A SIGNIFICANT INCOME TO THE INVESTOR WHO PURCHASES IT, IF HE MANAGES TO OBTAIN THE NECESSARY PERMITS TO IMPLEMENT A PROFIT-BASED PROJECT.
The baroque-style building complex, which occupies about forty percent of the site's floor area, has three floors, and thus approximately fifty thousand usable square meters, in the central part of the V. district of the capital, where there are already many luxury hotels and trendy office buildings, so it is not difficult to imagine that there would be an investor who would see imagination even in such a huge investment.
THE CENTRAL LOCATION AND SIZE OF THE PROPERTY FOR SALE IN ITSELF PREDICTS A TRANSACTION OF TEN BILLION HUF.
In the past, the mayor already had several proposals for the utilization of the town hall plot and the building standing on it, but the transfer of the property to private hands was not officially included among them.
Even before his election, Gergely Karácsony said:
"I am opening the City Hall. The fact that the most valuable plot of land in Budapest is currently a parking lot has a terrible message. I want to lead a Budapest that is open both symbolically and in reality. Following Western European examples, they would operate an open town hall, the garden of which is not a parking lot, but a public park, where civil organizations also have offices, as well as cafés and other public spaces. Anyway, the mayor of Ljubljana specifically asked me to tell István Tarlós that there is a gay bar in the basement of the City Hall. - however, almost nothing of these ideas was realized.
Source: Origo.hu
Featured image: MTI
