In the long-running dispute about the call option for Klagenfurt Airport, ÖVP regional councilor Martin Gruber follows up again. With an expert opinion, the politician wants to substantiate that the land on which Lilihill wants to build Aviation City should be worth significantly more than the private majority owner claims.
Specifically, it is about the amount of rent that a Lilihill sister company should pay to the airport company. The ÖVP considers this to be too low. An expert report has now been drawn up. This should underpin the view of Martin Gruber, who is again calling for the implementation of the call option. Targeting this option has already been rejected twice in the state government by the SPÖ majority.
Lilihill wants those for him Construction of the Aviation City required plots of land at a price of around 40 euros per square meter from the airport company. Both KBV managing director Martin Payer and ÖVP regional councilor Martin Gruber take the view that this price should be set too low. It is claimed that the plots are said to be worth significantly more and therefore the Lilihill affiliate should pay more. A private report obtained from an expert is now intended to underpin this political suggestion.
The document was created by Franz Seiser, a court-certified real estate expert. This comes to the conclusion that the value of the land and thus also the rent to be achieved is significantly higher than estimated by Lilihill. Furthermore, the expert also criticizes the Aviation City, since this is only supposed to exist as a rough plan.
"The result is shocking, the biggest real estate scandal since the lake purchase is imminent. I warned you that this should be avoided. Anyone who is willing to let the majority owner have the land on these terms is willing to accept millions of euros in damage for the KBV and the state,” says Provincial Councilor Martin Gruber.
KBV board member Martin Payer even goes one step further and accuses Lilihill of having submitted a so-called “complimentary report”. Of course, the private majority owner does not want to comment on this and points out, among other things, that they generally do not take a position on “campaign ducks”.
Payer on this subject: “The majority owner has always refused. We now see why, since he wants to secure these areas cheaply himself in the case of courtesy reports, to the detriment of the airport company (KFBG). If we had advertised the areas long ago, they would already be in use and annual building lease interest would flow into KFBG's coffers, we wouldn't have any liquidity problems."
Behind this assertion lies the fact that the management of Klagenfurt Airport has informed the shareholders that around 3,7 million euros in fresh liquidity are needed. These are to be raised by the owners, i.e. Lilihill, the state of Carinthia, KBV and the city of Klagenfurt. As a result, the state of Carinthia alone has to contribute around 740.000 euros. However, Lilihill accounts for a much higher sum because it is the majority owner.