Hetq continues to present the state of Yerevan’s Circular Park land, divided amongst former officials and their affiliates for years.

This is the third article on this topic, which covers the section between Teryan and Abovyan Streets.

The study of the lease agreements with the Municipality of Yerevan, as well as the cadastral history of the land, shows that the rents of the third part of the park have started since the beginning of 2000s. There are three companies occupying areas there - Côte d'Azur LLC, Green Flora LLC and Orient Stone LLC. 

Largest Area at the Lowest Price

The rented area of Côte d'Azur LLC owned by businessman Nikolay Khachaturov is the largest section both in the third part of the park and in its overall territory. According to the contract signed between the Yerevan Municipality and the company in 2011, the total area of ​​the land is 12,860 square meters, leased for 25 years, with an annual rent set at 676 thousand AMD. Thus, Côte d'Azur LLC pays only around 56,000 drams a month for more than one hectare of leased land, which is a very small amount compared to any other rentals of park territory - just 4.5 drams per square meter. 

There is one clause in the lease contract that states that this rent fee is in force until the tenant completes the construction work, after which an additional lease price agreement will be concluded. However, there is no such agreement in the documents that Hetq got from the Municipality of Yerevan, which suggests that the rent has not changed up to now.

According to the State Register of Legal Entities, Côte d'Azur LLC was founded on July 24, 2002. Until 2013, Nikolay Khachaturov had been the only owner of the company, after which 99% of the shares were transferred to Veni Group company, which also belongs to Nikolay Khachaturov. Both companies operate in the real estate market, mainly by leasing their own real estate or subleasing, like in this section of the Circular Park, subleased to various businesses. 

Hetq tried to contact Nikolay Khachaturov several times on different days. However, neither the calls nor the questions in writing have been replied. 

Khachaturov also owns a number of other companies. His companies are mainly engaged in wholesale trade in real estate, construction, cement and sand. Nikolay Khachaturov also manages the Hrazdan Cement Plant. His Delta-Fragment company has the right to sell cement produced at the Hrazdan Cement Plant.

Stone Processing Company in Circular Park

One of the tenants of the third part of the Circle Park is the Orient Stone Company, which was named Flora Land before 2009. The contract between the Municipality and the company, signed on September 3, 2002, allowed Flora Land to lease 9,040 square meters of land for a 25-year period to build a catering facility.

The annual rent is 356,000 drams. Here, too, there was also a clause in the contract stating that the rent would have been valid before the tenant completed the construction work, after which an additional lease agreement should be concluded.

The space leased to Flora Land is in the back of the Chamber Music House (in the center of the photo, the building with a red roof). In October 2005, the company had initiated the construction of a modern café in the area, which was the cause of protests. After protests in November 2005, the municipality decided to stop building the café, though years later, the Modern Café was eventually built.

In 2009, Flora Land was renamed into Orient Stone, which deals with the extraction, processing, export and import of natural stones. Robert Yeghiazaryan owns 100% of the company, but it should be noted that at the time when Orient Stone was renamed, one of the shareholders of the company was Nikolay Khachaturov.

In June 2016, a Mayor Decision was published, soon followed by a new agreement between the Municipality and Orient Stone. According to these documents, the boundaries of the area leased by Orient Stone were adjusted, being cut from 9,040 to only 1701.28 square meters, of which 339.05 were defined for café use and the rest - for improvement and landscape gardening.  This resulted into a big change in the rent price, since the annual rent for café use is 10% of the cadastral value of the land. Thus, it became 4 million 486 thousand drams instead of the previous 356 thousand drams.  The decision also defined the terms and amounts of fines to be paid by the company retrospectively, which amounted to more than 30 million AMD. 

By the decision of the Mayor of Yerevan on June 29, 2018, when Taron Margaryan was still at his post, the term of the lease was prolonged until December 31, 2040.

An Area Leased for 50 years

Green Flora LLC has been occupying the third part of the Circle Park since 2000. The current contract between the company and the Municipality was signed in September 2016. A total area of ​​1,162 square meters of different use is leased by the company until 2050 with an annual rent of 4 million 104 thousand AMD.

The SAS supermarket, owned by former Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) MP Artak Sargsyan, is located at Isahakyan 35, and its area is subleased Green Flora, acting as a real estate company.

In January 2018, Green Flora started construction of a café behind SAS supermarket, which was planned to be over in a year. Though the construction of the café was suspended for several months, recently Green Flora has almost completed construction.

Design by Ani Hovhannisyan

Read also:

• Yerevan’s Circular Park: Commercial Interests, Illegal Construction Deprive Citizens of Much Needed Green Space (Part 1)
• Yerevan’s Circular Park: Commercial Interests, Illegal Construction Deprive Citizens of Much Needed Green Space (Part 2)