Peter Munk, Oleg Deripaska, Nathaniel Rothschild, King Leruo Molotlegi of the Bafokeng Nation and Hannah Rothschild at Nathaniel’s Porto Montenegro bash. (Image: Jimmy de Paris)
To be a proper member of the ultra-rich you need to own a super-yacht. Super-yachts are personal, multi-storey luxury boats over 25 metres in length, with some stretching up to 160 metres. Munk’s own super-yacht, the Golden Eagle, is 40 metres long and requires a year-round staff of five. When the boat isn’t cruising the Côte d’Azur or the Dalmatian Coast with the extended Munk family on board, it’s docked at Porto Montenegro. Munk’s floating neighbours there include billionaires from China, Norway and Russia. Berths aren’t cheap. Annual leasing fees rise to €26,110 for larger crafts.
The unremarkable town of Tivat is situated in a remarkable place: the Bay of Kotor, a UNESCO-protected world heritage site of rugged mountains plunging into pristine turquoise waters, and the deepest natural harbour on the Adriatic coast. The conditions are ideal for docking a big boat. Two serpentine bays conjoin to make up Europe’s southernmost natural fjord. Byron once declared the region the world’s “most beautiful encounter between the land and the sea.”
However, when Munk arrived in 2006, the town was far from beautiful. A one-time Soviet navy base, Tivat has a population of 14,000. There were no Western-style hotels or restaurants, no quaint bakery-cafés. Four enormous concrete piers stretched out several hundred metres from shore. The piers, which Munk bought from the Montenegrin government, are the commercial backbone of his proposition. They are bomb-proof and up to 20 metres deep. Constructed 120 years ago by the Austro-Hungarian military, they were later used to dock Warsaw Pact–era submarines.
Five years and hundreds of millions of euros later (at least €650 million will be spent before it’s done), the port is well positioned as the newest hot spot on the Mediterranean coast. The Porto Montenegro hype has begun. The development has recently been featured in Elle, Condé Nast Traveler and Monocle. Last year, Vanity Fair declared Porto “the archetype for the heights to which the country aspires: high-end appurtenances to give high-rollers high times.” There are plans for Montenegro’s first golf course and, eventually, a small boutique hotel and casino. Three condo developments on the marina have been constructed and sold, and two more phases are currently under construction. Units are not cheap: prices start at €155,000 for studios and soar up to several million for a four-bedroom penthouse with a private rooftop pool. Buyers often lease berths in the marina.
When I visited early last summer, the first stage of Porto Montenegro was close to completion, with heavy equipment and teams of construction workers labouring around the clock. The main pier, known as Jetty One, is the harbour’s grand promenade. It is a 200-metre-long boulevard of whitewashed concrete and stone, with two rows of mature palms imported from Uruguay. Dozens of yachts were docked in the port’s 185 berths, ranging from modest sailboats to floating palaces. (Another 465 berths are planned.) The high-end splendour stands in contrast to the untamed scenery. For now, but not for long, these magnificent hills are free of palatial villas and chi-chi nightclubs. At the end of Jetty One sits an enormous military crane—it’s an eyesore, a remnant of the port’s industrial past and a reminder that even the most gorgeous visions can have ugly beginnings.
i was in canada a long long time ago . there i felt and experienced, grandeur on a non-european scale, bloody cold weather bloody early on (qeubec minus ten in late september one year down at the bottom of the town ) an almost pathetic and totally unexpected need to “copy europe ” but a europe from two hundred years ago (quebec french ) totally off the wall glorious disregard and irrevence (toronto ) those forests those wolves that passion for the wilderness, big seaport (montreal ) russian speakers and now you are going to chuck it
November 8, 2011 at 1:57 am | by JULIE HARPUMabout all over our six thousand years of history, our bridge on the drina (ivo andric ) nobel prize winner, our phoenicians, our iliad, our odesseys, our homer, our pelepponese,our greek tragedies and intricate histories; well, hellzapoppin,we need your illiteracy, your lack of history, your barefaced ignorance and helpful we had nothing on the slate to wipe clean … nat rothschild’s mummy is canadian,that flaming red hair, that flaming cheek, that flaming …… everything ….. party on goodies we need this stage in our lives come come and give us your everything, up the celebration and up everything
Interesting article with a lot more information than what you can usually read about the Porto Montenegro story. A full press review (since 2005) on the project can be read on the “Montenegro Tribune” website’s press review.
November 8, 2011 at 12:12 pm | by Montenegro TribuneNothing to envy about, if a person makes billions from his own country who gave them shelter, freedom, opportunities to make as much money that a person can ever dream …plus many many more things one can do compare with many oppressed countries, and then when they are rich move to another country for tax haven. Hello!, isn’t it’s time to share the wealth like any of your country men by paying your fair share of the taxes like anyone else.
Another hypocrite!!!
November 8, 2011 at 12:52 pm | by BaboonOh man, who cares, really?
November 8, 2011 at 1:07 pm | by RAJ“A one-time Soviet navy base” …again and again!
Tivat was NEVER Soviet navy base, it was ex Yugoslavia’s navy base and Yugoslavia NEVER belonged to the Warsaw pact!!!!
November 8, 2011 at 6:24 pm | by LocalI know you are trying to get all Russians down to Adriatic, but PLEASE don’t create “new history”!
greetings from Tivat, Montenegro. we love Peter and his rich friends because they are helping our community. we would rather have your private country than this fake republic of Montenegro. viva la Peter Munk for 100 years more.
November 8, 2011 at 8:34 pm | by NikolaWho gives a fuck….
November 8, 2011 at 9:41 pm | by EveryoneHe’ll be dead soon anyway….
November 8, 2011 at 9:43 pm | by Joe SchmoAn interesting and (mostly) correct article – as one of the posters above pointed out there seems to be an excessive use of the word “soviet” in the text and this is absolutely incorrect as Montenegro (i.e. ex Yugoslavia) was a non-unaligned country with it’s own (pretty big) military and not a member of NATO/Warsaw pact.
Also, it’s interesting to observe that to the writer of this article the now luxury yacth marine had “ugly” begginings (when it was a massive shipyard building big military ships/submarines) – one would imagine that to the people of that area who had worked at the docks for generations and were proud of their technical know how this may be just slightly insulting and their opinion would be just a bit different (“once we built great marine vessels and now it’s the rich and the shameless and their bimbos etc”)
In any case, the show must go on, and the marina certainly seems like it has potential to be a big commercial success – what comes with it for the once quiet area of Bay of Kotor) god knows, but it is likely that in 20-30 years it may look just as overpopulated as Antibes, Monaco et al do today…
November 9, 2011 at 4:52 am | by Simon, ManchesterI am from Montenegro and I live few miles away from Tivat. “Munk bought the Port of Tivat for €155 million.” In Montenegro, official statements for this buy still stands on €3.5 million!!!
November 9, 2011 at 6:27 am | by Vladimir MontenegroWe have great corruption problem in here and that means Munk has been involved in criminal actions with Djukanovic as ex premier!
Will anyone read and comment this text!!!???
@Leagh McLaren, Please read your history before you write another article, obviously nobody is controling her in publishing department ,Adriatic is not post Soviet,for your information is part of Mediterrenean….
November 9, 2011 at 6:48 am | by JoeThe title of the article is a bit delusional! This “stan” extension usually refers to the Central-Asian former Soviet Union states. Average Canadian who doesn’t have a clue where Montenegro actually is may probably have wrong impression about it! Check the map instead…South Europe, just between Italy and Greece
November 9, 2011 at 7:39 am | by monteskyI just like to say that whoever wrote this article doesn`t have a clue about Montenegro and its history. I see that everybody is commenting on “soviet”… So I have one question, how is possible that anybody is going to consider his article as serious one if you can read such things in it??? I now that half of Canadians/Americans are illiterate, uneducated so even this little knowledge is too much for them. Regarding Peter Monk, he did a lot for Tivat. At least now looks like town. The good thing is that he is still investing, and town is growing every day. Hopefully he`ll continue like this. Leah McLaren please learn some history, don`t create new one.
November 9, 2011 at 9:11 am | by RajkoThis article perpetuates a few misconceptions about the “Porto Montenegro” project which are worth clearing up, while glossing over the type of individual that Peter Munk is and who his business partners are in this venture locally.
(1) The land and contents were bought for 3.5-million, while the actual value was $155-million. Even with the ‘environmental’ clean-up and severance payments that Munk gave out, he’s still paid FAR LESS than the actual amount that the base and the property is worth.
(2) Some have welcomed Munk locally, but many are upset at the environmental devastation brought about by yacht’s and cruise ships that dump their waste in Kotor bay, thus disrupting its sensitive ecology. Furthermore, Kotor and its surrounding towns have become depots for the cocaine trade into Western Europe. The drug trade is taking off now that the elite is there.
(3) Milo DJUKANOVIC is named in investigations in Bari and Naples (Italy) as well as in the Canton of Ticino (Switzerland) as being the ‘capo di tutti capi’ for organizing smuggling activities during the 1990s that brought contraband cigarettes, weapons, drugs, and smuggled humans into the EU using Montenegro as a transit route. His associates where the Napolitan Camorra and the Apulian Sacra Corona Unita crime organizations. The Ban brothers, Vesko Barovic, Aco Djukanovic and other ‘businessmen’ / ‘tycoons’ – who made their millions during this period and are linked to Milo Djukanovic – have benefitted from Munk and his friends in various ways.
(4) Munk now plans to make millions off of a cast of shady characters that are buying property and laundering their money in the region: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_17/b4225081076010.htm.
(5) “Trickle down” effects generally don’t work. Look at most tourism hot-spots for the super rich. Local unemployment in Montenegro is still around 20% according to the latest labor force surveys. The average net salary is some 500 euros/month, while prices – because of Munk and his friends – are skyrocketing (the average household of four needs about 750 euros/month to meet basic household needs).
And yes, Tivat was never a “Soviet-base” nor does the term ‘stan’ have any relevance for the Balkans. I realize Toronto Life is a ‘society’ magazine, so it’s par for the course to glamorize the very unglamorous reality that enables places like Porto Montenegro to exist…
November 9, 2011 at 9:47 am | by ArgosMunk’s security in Papua New Guinea wasn’t accused of “sexual assault” but of “gang rape” according to Human Rights Watch. Munk called ‘gang rape’ a ‘cultural habit’ (this is the Human Rights Watch report: http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/02/01/papua-new-guinea-serious-abuses-barrick-gold-mine). This is also an individual who has openly praised Augusto Pinochet in the past and whose security forces in Tanzania removed the bodies of killed miners to hide the evidence (http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/996346–bodies-of-men-shot-at-barrick-mine-stolen-and-dumped-by-police-families?bn=1#article).
November 9, 2011 at 11:09 am | by correction