Campaign For A Living Venice

The public hearing yesterday revealed a surprise: the irrevocable offer to buy “for a person to be named” by a mysterious buyer who on 23 October had already “guessed” the new property value, which was revised downward by Resolution 261, dated 8 November, negatively impacting the city budget with a loss of several million Euro.

Who will this Brother Guess turn out to be?

The anomalies of this business don’t end here, because on 8 November the local press spoke of a contract given to Insula to “count the rooms” and review the previous valuation (14 million) with a view towards the possible transformation of the public property in to a hotel. The property’s strategic position, with a flow of tourist from two directions, should obviously enhance the commercial value (rather than diminish) of the public property they intend to sell.

The mysterious Mister X appears have had a crystal ball at his disposal, if on 23 October he had already placed an irrevocable offer to purchase, which was quickly received by the City on 16 November with the reasoning explained thus: “considering that the price offered is higher than the property value established by the City Administration with the cited resolution of 8 November.” The fact is the Mister X simply or casually “rounded up” to this price, which available evidence suggests was known to him (to him and only him) two weeks before the Administration deliberating the lowering of the valuation. Almost like destiny…

Therefore, in light of the many questions that this and other sales of public property raise, we formally request that the City Government:

SUSPEND PUBLICATION of sale notices for all public properties, in order to avoid the risk of further damage than that described here.

We reiterate our opposition to the sale of public properties, even more so when they are sold in a way that is not clear, and we reserve the right to place these and other anomalies before the Corte di Conti with jurisdiction in the area, to be evaluated in light of damage to the State.

Gruppo 25 Aprile

Venezia, 18 November 2017