Lucia Salinas
02/09/2020 - 13:44
Clarín.com
Politics
El Calafate was the epicenter of hotel ventures for
the Kirchner family, as well as for Lázaro Báez and Cristóbal López
.
With prosecutions for money laundering, millionaire embargoes and judicial interventions by its main companies, they all converge in the same reality
: the expansion plans of some
and the inauguration of others
were unfinished
.
Making the Kirchner family hotels profitable and continuing to operate is a difficulty that judicial intervention now faces.
But their former partners Lázaro Báez and Cristóbal López face the same challenge: their hotel ventures were left with unfinished works, their doors closed and accumulating debts.
The hotel ventures of the Kirchner family, the owner of the Indalo Group and the head of Austral Construcciones, are under scrutiny for suspicions that they were a "screen that had the purpose of
putting illicit money into circulation to give it the appearance of legality
". say: they were used for money laundering operations.
Today, with their owners prosecuted, facing oral trials, with their assets seized and in some cases with judicial interventions, the decline of the tourist complexes is in sight.
Let's go over one by one:
Lázaro Báez's hotel in El Calafate that was never completed.
Photo OPI Santa Cruz / Francisco Muñoz.
Lazaro's hotel
Located on Calle Los Fresnos Manzana 316 in the town of El Calafate, the imposing
Hotel Bahía
stands out among the more modest buildings that surround it.
With more than five floors, it stands on land owned by the construction company Badial SA, owned by Báez.
In 2010, the Kirchner business partner signed an agreement between Badial SA and another of their companies, Austral Construcciones.
There, with the signature of Julio Mendoza, president of the construction company, he granted the concession of the work not only for Austral to complete the work of the building, but for it to manage and market it in the future.
Although the Báez firm allocated millions of pesos to the construction of the hotel and had an important work progress,
it was never finished
.
The property was valued by the National Appraisal Court at 156.4 million pesos, making it
the most expensive property that businessman K owns in El Calafate.
Inside you can see the
bathrooms with hydromassage
, and spacious bedrooms with views of Lake Argentino.
The Federal Police found refrigerators and bedroom furniture stored in several rooms, as well as lamps that at some point would be used in bedrooms.
The property is seized, like its owner, in more than 600 million dollars.
Hostería Los Notros, by Cristobal López, in Los Glaciares National Park.
Its remodeling has been unfinished for years.
Photos Emmanuel Fernández.
The Cristóbal López hotels
Some 1,424 kilometers separate one hotel from the other.
Pablo Grippo's company - responsible for Cristina Kirchner's boutique hotel and her residence - is in charge of the renovations, which were left unfinished and with debts.
The owner of the Indalo Group is inhibited and seized in the case in which Judge Julián Ercolini accused him of defrauding the State by not paying the gasoline tax for 8,000 million pesos with his oil company Oil Combustibles.
López's goal was to have two exclusive hotels, although with different styles.
76 kilometers from El Calafate, upon entering the Magallanes Peninsula where the Los Glaciares National Park is located, on the side of a winding road, is
Los Notros,
a boutique complex with 30 rooms overlooking the Perito Moreno that the businessman bought in 2012.
With the special permits granted by the provincial authorities, López promoted an important renovation but cannot use more of the area already affected, because it is a provincial reserve.
Among other reforms, López wanted to incorporate an elevator.
But the work has been completely stopped for years.
The Return a hotel in Bariloche Cristóbal López's hotel.
In Bariloche, the gambling czar has the Hostería
El Retorno
, located 12 km from the city center, in front of Lake Nahuel Huapi.
In 2016, López began an in-depth repair plan to give the complex a “more Patagonian” style.
I wanted to have more spacious "and exclusive" rooms.
But
that work also remained unfinished and in debt
.
On the outside there were wood stacked against the front, cables, a thrown ladder and garbage.
The Return had 1 suite with 2 rooms, 7 rooms with a lake view, 16 rooms with a park view and 5 apartments.
View of the La Aldea hotel owned by Cristina Kirchner and the extension that was left unfinished. Photo.
Maxi Failla
La Aldea, the small hotel of the Kirchners
Hostería
La Aldea
was another of the hotels that Lázaro Báez managed through his firm Valle Miter.
Its market value - according to the report of the intervention - amounts to
1.3 million dollars.
The building began to be rebuilt in 2016, under the direction of Cristina Kirchner's architect, Pablo Grippo.
The work was unfinished, among other things, due to lack of payment
to the company in charge of the expansion.
At present "it appears as a semi-destroyed building," said the auditor.
The last company to manage it was Idea SA, owned by Osvaldo Sanfelice, but it was intervened on
suspicion of money laundering.
To begin with, there is a municipal tax debt of at least 439,993 pesos for the years 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. “The inn is located at the entrance of the city and occupies a superbly located corner.
If it were rebuilt, according to the plans already approved and that I reserve in my possession, it would allow the use of 42 double rooms, in addition to commercial premises on the ground floor, on the Avenue, and interior space for parking ”, it was reported from the intervention that decided to put it for rent.
For the intervention, the best option, given the lack of financial resources of the hotel company, “would be to
interest a tourist company in the field to concession the inn
, but leaving the completion of the reconstruction in charge, reimbursing the investment through a discount in the monthly installments of the canon that is agreed ”.
A real estate agency in El Calafate had begun to manage the rents and there was even a company interested, but then
the pandemic broke out and the negotiations did not prosper.
CS