Kotor-based Sunny Palace is still waiting for Montenegro’s government to approve a revised urban-planning proposal for a new hotel on the former Galeb site in Ulcinj, the company said. The plan sets out an 11-storey hotel instead of the 15 storeys in the original proposal. The project is valued at tens of millions of euros, but cannot proceed to the next stated design and permitting steps until the planning documentation is adopted.
The revised draft was submitted to the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property on 23 July 2024. The ministry partly accepted objections from both Sunny Palace and Ulcinj Municipality, reducing the proposed height and changing design requirements. The company described the planning process as ongoing and said it was meeting its communication obligations with state institutions and the municipality.
Ulcinj Municipality has said it has received no information from the government or the ministry on when the draft could be adopted. It also said it had not received an official response to its objections. During the public hearing, the municipality disputed the draft’s consistency with the Law on Spatial Planning and Construction of Buildings, the Coastal Area Plan, Ulcinj’s 2017 Spatial-Urban Plan and the revision guidelines for the Galeb site.
Revised design and municipal objections
The amended proposal sets the building’s configuration at 5 Su + P + 5. Its architectural design is intended to preserve views between land and sea through openings in the building. One conceptual design would replace the three options in the earlier draft, and a passage beneath the street would directly connect the two urban parcels.
The municipality’s concerns included construction and occupancy indices, land designated for building, tourism-zone planning indicators and parameters in higher-level plans. It concluded that the draft did not comply with the law, professional standards or good practice, and warned that adoption could prompt an initiative before the Constitutional Court to review the procedure’s constitutionality and legality.
The ministry partly accepted Sunny Palace’s request for the hotel to receive the same gross floor area treatment as under the previous landowner, but set the hotel’s urban-planning parameters at 0.5/1.8 and reduced the height to 11 storeys. It rejected the company’s request for modular platforms of up to 1,200 square metres, saying the proposed area was too large for the limited cove below the hotel. The draft allows a swimming pool and sports grounds that are not counted in gross floor area, as well as modular buildings including a restaurant, toilets, changing rooms, storage and a pool.
A request to keep a landing stage for vessels in use throughout the year was not accepted. The ministry said platforms and landing stages could not withstand winter weather. It accepted the proposed direct passage between the two parcels and an allowance for modular-demountable structures on one parcel.
Project timetable depends on adoption
The public hearing ended two years ago. Its report was prepared in September 2025 and published on the ministry’s website early this year. The ministry had sent the draft to relevant institutions and acted on comments from 15 institutions; those that did not respond within the required period were treated as having given approval.
Sunny Palace bought the land from Podgorica-based Rokšped with an obligation to build a new Galeb hotel. In early June 2022, the government established a draft agreement on the investment obligation between the company and HTP Ulcinjska rivijera. The hotel was initially expected to be in operation in 2027, without the initial announcement being attributed to a named source in the information provided.
After adoption of the planning documents, the company expects preparation of the main design to take 12 months, down from 18, with construction potentially starting 90 days later. Sunny Palace said it is preparing project components that can proceed alongside the planning process and is in contact with the future hotel operator to align technical, functional and quality standards. It plans to move to the main design, approvals, permits and preparatory work only after the required formal and legal conditions are met.
