Representatives of the Municipality of Berane will officially hand over land to the German retail company Lidl, the head of the mayor’s office, Maja Đurišić, confirmed.
She told Radio Montenegro that, after numerous deadline extensions and protests by local entrepreneurs, all temporary business premises on the site have now been demolished, creating the conditions for the investor to begin work on the new supermarket.
Construction is expected to begin soon, although local authorities have not yet been informed of the exact start date.
After two years of delays and repeated postponements, the land on which the Lidl store will be built will officially become the property of the German retail chain as of today, RTCG reported.
The site is now ready for use after the removal of temporary structures and the relocation of the local flea market.
“The municipality’s responsibility was to clear the land and remove all encumbrances from the property, which has now been completed. We finally have a clear situation and can officially hand over the land,” Đurišić said.
She added that the start of construction depends entirely on the investor: “We don’t have that information. Our part of the job was to prepare and hand over the land.”
For years, numerous small business owners had operated from temporary premises on the same plot. Their months-long protests against the municipality’s decision to sell the land and demolish their shops were unsuccessful.
One of the former tenants, Džeko Skenderović, said he believed the issue could have been handled differently: “They could have sold the land to us too, and moved Lidl to another location so that both we and Lidl were satisfied,” he said.
The German retailer purchased nine hectares of land near the center of Berane for two million euros, with the entire amount already paid to the municipality.
