Against the backdrop of a giant supermarket on the site of the former ‘Dobrobut’ market in the centre of Lviv sits a small mound of cobblestones. The Lviv city council has initiated another court case aimed at revoking the ownership rights to this land. According to Sviatoslav Kindrativ, Deputy Director of the Legal Department of the Lviv City Council, a suspicion has already been announced against the state registrar who carried out registration actions regarding the property.
The case is currently under review at the Western Appellate Commercial Court, as the city plans to develop a green park on this territory. Thus, the decisions made could annul the state registration of the object, allowing for the commencement of space development works.
The damages suffered by Lviv due to the situation surrounding ‘Dobrobut’ amount to around 500 million hryvnias. This sum, according to Kindrativ, results in constant appeals to law enforcement and repeated court proceedings to protect the city area.
The plot, which had belonged to the city since the 90s, was part of a project to create “Galinvest” LLC. Austrian investors planned to construct a five-star hotel on this site, but the project could not be realised, and eventually, the land was transferred into private hands without the city’s consent.
Estimates suggest that the value of the privatised objects exceeds half a billion hryvnias. The Lviv city council utilised previous court victories to reclaim this urban space and plans to establish a new park on the site of the former ‘Dobrobut’ market.