Saulkrasti mayor seeks public funding for hotel infrastructure

Saulkrasti is not a municipality where investors are queuing up, according to both a businessman building a hotel on the beach and the municipal leader seeking public funding for infrastructure around the new building, Latvian public broadcaster LSM reported in its programme De facto.

The three-storey building is difficult to see from the main street because it stands behind a dune. From the sea, however, it appears to rise directly from the beach sand.

In a March 18 Facebook post, the Saulkrasti municipality said a historic building was being restored at the location. The new hotel does not closely resemble the former fishing-net warehouse. The warehouse was privatised during the years of upheaval and converted into a nightclub. About 10 years ago, it was bought by Mārtiņš Ratnieks, the owner of a design company.

Fishermen have historically operated along this coast, and the location is also marked on maps as a fishing settlement. Fishing equipment lies in the beach sand.

In August, following a request from the Saulkrasti Fishermen’s Association, the municipality officially arranged documents for the use of land at 1 Katrīnbādes Street, next to the hotel. Fisherman Jānis Garklāvs said the municipality had helped because the location was the only fishing settlement in Saulkrasti.

Saulkrasti municipality council chairman Normunds Līcis of the Latvian Regional Alliance said the aim was to organise the documents and establish order in the area, where containers and a smokehouse had historically been placed but no buildings had been constructed.

At the same time, Līcis is pushing for the streets, engineering networks and surrounding area near the hotel to be built and improved immediately using municipal funds. He said the project should include a public route to the sea with accessibility features, public toilets, lighting, benches and spaces for street trading.