Swiss Aminona resort still a Polonsky project, he says
Architect's drawing of the CHF350 million resort complex in the Swiss Alps, Village Royal: Russian developer Serge Polonsky says his renamed company is still backing it
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND -Mirax, whose colourful founder Sergei Polonsky, literally ate his tie during a TV interview in January 2011, has in the past week re-started construction on the building that in 2013 is expected to become Europe’s tallest building, at 360-plus metres with a spire that will reach nearly 200 metres higher.
The Moscow Times reports that “The ambitious project at Moskva-City, on the west side of the capital next to the Third Ring Road, is slated to become Europe’s tallest skyscraper, outdoing the current leader — the Commerzbank building in Frankfurt am Main.” A west tower was completed in 2008, then the project “stalled” under the weight of the global financial crisis and problems Mirax ran into with bank loans.
But the money appears to be flowing again, with Sherbank, which is loaning money to continue construction also promising to buy two floors near the top of the 93-torey building. Developer Mirax, reborn as Nazvanie.net, says the office space is”booked far in advance”, reports the daily paper. The cost: $9,000 a square metre.
Polonsky remains the main shareholder, according to an English-language web site about his current business operations and projects that claims to be his official site. Few other projects from the former Mirax portfolio are mentioned except for one in canton Valais in Switzerland.
The tie-eating episode, according to Moscow Times, dates back to a promise Polonsky made in 2008, and subsequently failed to come through with: that Mirax apartment prices would increase 25 percent in 1.5 years.
Mirax was the developer behind the Village Royal Swiss luxury resort project in Aminona, canton Valais in Switzerland, currently stalled as the federal supreme court reviews requests by environmental groups to block it. Polonsky’s newly-named Nazvanie group is backing the project, he said 3 November on his web site, although at a press conference earlier in 2011, it was unclear if the developers were still tied to Polonsky.
Polonsky has most recently been in the news because of an on-camera tussle with British media tycoon Alexander Lebedev.
Snow conditions, Spring skiing deals, this season’s improvements, Aminona resort, upcoming events
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Winter is officially behind us, clocks spring forward this weekend, and the snow is gone from the lower slopes, so this will be GenevaLunch’s final weekend snow and winter sports report for 2010-2011 season.
There is still time to ski and even sled, so snow fans have little to worry about, but you’ll need to check first to see where the snow is. Be sure to take along the sun cream!
Weather forecast
Snowpark at Corvatsch, St Moritz, 25 February 2011
Highs on the plain and at low altitudes, including Geneva, of 18-20C Saturday, with sunshine, but clouds building in the afternoon. Expect mountain highs of 16C Sunday and snow Sunday afternoon down to 1,700-1,900 metres.
Resorts closing, but special offers in some that stay open
This is the final weekend of skiing for most resorts at lower altitudes. This includes the Jura, where there is still, happily, enough snow for a few final downhill runs. Shirley Curran reports:
“Our Jura ski season closes Sunday, 27 March, but it is still possible to ski at Crozet and Lelex. Indeed, in the middle of the week, the run right down to Lelex was still in operation, though the cover down there is thin. Eight lifts will be running on Saturday and Sunday but it is a good idea to get up there early as the snow becomes very soft in the afternoon. You will need suncream too. The season is already over at the Col de la Faucille.”
MySwitzerland, the national tourism office, has a list of resorts that remain open in April, with special spring skiing deals as well as a list of the glacier resorts, some of which offer summer skiing later on.
GenevaLunch’s series, Swiss dream ski week, will be completed Sunday 27 March with the final article, on Zermatt, the slopes and the town. The report on Davos published 25 March points out that great skiing and snowboarding is available there until the end of April.
Avalanche alerts, for those going off-piste or doing back country skiing: moderate / level 2 on the northern flank of the Alps, but high / level 3 on the southern side, from lower Valais to the Goms. Details in the national daily avalanche bulletin, in English.
Looking back, changes during the 2010-2011 ski season
Snow machines are everywhere
Green go the Russians, oh!
Electric vehicles only, with parking in Sierre
Aminona's existing 3 towers (white) likely to see several more as part of new luxury resort project
Sierre, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The controversial CHF350 million resort complex that Russia’s Mirax company is planning to build in Aminona, near Crans-Montana in canton Valais, is suddenly looking greener than its original plans showed.
Swiss environmental groups in December 2009 filed appeals against the project to build a 2,500 resort with several towers and a five-star hotel plus 32 chalets.
WWF and the Swiss Fund for the Protection of Nature said at the time that they “fear[ed] a fiasco for nature and the surrounding countryside, as well as for the region itself.”
Concerns focused particularly on the supply of drinking water and protecting the dry prairies in the region, which are considered to be of national importance.
Mirax announced plans in 2007 to build on the 60,000m2 stretch to the east of Crans-Montana.
Mirax’s emphasis has now shifted from luxury resort to luxurious and green: the company says it will invest CHF250 million in green technologies for the resort, reports Le Nouvelliste, Valais newspaper.
The total expected cost of the resort has risen to at least CHF600m, with Mirax saying it will be not just the most ecological resort in Valais, but in all of Switzerland.
First snow, winter 2010-11 (30 August!), near Crans-Montana, Switzerland
Monts Jura, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Monday morning brought chilly temperatures, 9C at 1,000 metres in the Alps, where autumn apples are ripening earlier than usual, and fresh snow at 2,200 metres! If you’re hiking, climbing or mountain-biking, take warm clothes.
It’s not too early in the season to think about ski tickets, reports Shirley Curran, our Jura correspondent, with her first pre-season ski news for 2010-2011:
Jura season tickets
This is the last weekend that the telecabines from Lelex and Crozet will operate for the summer season but winter is on its way and, exceptionally this year, from September 6, it will be possible to buy Monts Jura season tickets on-line at the considerably cheaper pre-season ‘super-promotion’ rate. The resort will be operating one of the races from the Women’s International calendar in February.
Click on images to view larger
Rechy, Valais, near Sion, Switzerland, first snow, 30 August 2010
New guidelines work with existing laws such as Lex Koller rules limiting foreign ownership
Aminona's existing towers likely to see 15 more as part of new luxury resort project
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Tighter control over second homes in resorts must be part of sustainable development for tourist areas in order to retain their attractiveness, the federal government said Tuesday 6 July.
Bern has issued new guidelines for cantons, suggesting that these should serve as the basis for cantons’ own, revised guidelines.
The guidelines call for:
- limiting the number of second homes
- encouraging the hotel industry
- ensuring that first homes are available at reasonable prices
- improve the rate of occupation for “cold bed” homes, which outnumber regularly occupied ones for second homes.
The guidelines work alongside existing laws, but Parliament is considering a tougher law, to counteract a citizens’ initiative that calls for a vote on banning new second homes. Projects that are already underway, such as the new Aminona luxury complex to be built by Russian developer Mirax, will be not affected by the new guidelines, Martin Vinzens of the Swiss Office for Territorial Development told GenevaLunch.
The CHF500 million Aminona project in the commune of Mollens, canton Valais, of which CHF25m has been invested by the company to date, calls for three phases. The first, to build 10 towers, was opposed by four environmental groups, WWF, d’Helvetia Nostra (Franz Weber), Patrimoine Suisse and the Fondation suisse pour la protection du paysage. The ban prompted by their opposition has been lifted by the cantonal council. Phases 2 and 3, to build 45 chalets and then another 5 towers, lag behind in the approval process.
Links to other sites (Fre): Le Nouvelliste, Mollens commune, Sixieme Dimension, Swiss Federal Justice Office regulations on Swiss property purchase by foreigners
The new Aminona resort would be built next to the three existing white towers
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The WWF Switzerland and the Swiss Fund for the Protection of Nature (FP) said Tuesday 8 December they have filed an appeal against the Aminona resort project near Crans-Montana in canton Valais, saying they “fear a fiasco for nature and the surrounding countryside, as well as for the region itself.”
The CHF350 million-plus plan, proposed by Aminona Luxury Resort and Village (ALRV)/Mirax, with support from the commune of Mollens, calls for 15 buildings to be constructed. Mollens has given a green light to the first phase of the project moving ahead, but environmental groups say neither the Russian developer Mirax nor the commune have given adequate assurances to a series of questions raised: the additional pressure on surrounding undeveloped areas, transport management, water supplies in this dryest part of Switzerland, energy management. For transport, WWF and the FP say the commune has provided only contradictory information, saying on the one hand public transport will be provided, and on the other, that the plans call for more than 500 parking spaces with no coordinated public transport.
Three towers now but new Aminona resort would build more
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Russian company scheduled to build a large luxury resort in Aminona, near Crans-Montana in Valais, has assured the local Swiss mayor the project will go ahead as planned, Swiss radio RSR reports. Stéphane Pont, the town manager of Mollens, Valais, the administrative commune in which Aminona is located, has reportedly received a letter from the CEO of Mirax giving assurances that it has the financial means to develop the area, following a rescheduling of its debt with a Russian bank.
Pont wrote to Mirax CEO Sergey Polonski earlier in September asking for clarification of the situation, following reports in the Russian media that Mirax was in financial trouble and that it had not obtained credits for its projects for several months. Mirax announced 21 September that “Alfa Bank bought the rights to Mirax Group loans from Credit Suisse in July 2009 and became the company’s largest creditor.”
Existing three towers will be joined by 5 more; view of Aminona from village of Mollens
Correction 16:00 Mollens, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Russian company Mirax has passed a first, major hurdle in getting a green light to build a CHF350-plus million complex in the small resort of Aminona, next to Crans-Montana in Valais. Mirax specializes in large development projects including hotels and resorts. The first part of the project is for a hotel which has four buildings (correction: we earlier noted that this includes several towers, but these are part of a second phase, not yet approved, Mirax told GenevaLunch).
The larger project proposed to the commune of Mollens, of which Aminona is part, will have a five-star hotel, 32 chalets, five towers and luxury services. The complete project is expected to have 2,500 beds.
Photo, Aminona in Valais at dawn 15 February 2009, with off-piste ski tracks visible (click on image to enlarge)
Lake Geneva region (GenevaLunch) – Schools in canton Geneva are back in class Monday after a weeklong break, and canton Vaud begins its school holidays. The following week it is the turn of canton Valais. Swiss cantons stagger their vacations to spread out visitors to winter resorts.
