The golf course, a Gary Player “signature” design, will be the centerpiece of Luštica Bay, a 1,400-acre resort community in Tivat, along the nation’s rocky, dramatic Adriatic coast. Orascom will undertake the project via Podgorica-based Luštica Development AD, a joint venture with the property’s owner, the government of Montenegro.
Orascom, a Swiss firm that’s developed some of the world’s premier resorts, has described Luštica Bay as “a magical place to live life as it should be.” At build-out, the magic will include not just Player’s championship-quality golf course but 750 villas, 1,600 condos, several hotels (2,200 total rooms), three shopping areas, a marina, schools, a spa, a medical center, and other attractions.
Luštica Development will reportedly break ground on this massive undertaking in late 2012 or early 2013. If previously announced schedules are still viable, the first phase of construction will include a hotel, a marina, and the golf course.
Orascom is controlled by Samih Sawiris, an Egyptian developer who ranks among the world’s 400 richest people. He made his multibillion-dollar fortune running the resort division of Orascom Group, a conglomerate founded by his father, Onsi Sawiris. Under Samih Sawiris’ direction, Orascom built two extremely popular resorts in Egypt, the famed El Gouna resort on the Red Sea coast, and Taba Heights, which is along the Gulf of Aqaba on the Sinai Peninsula.
These days it’s building a Kurt Rossknecht-designed course in Andermatt, Switzerland, and it’s planning to build resort communities with golf courses in Oman (Jebel Sifah and Salalah Beach) and Morocco (Chbika), along with a second course at El Gouna.
Orascom won the right to build Luštica Bay in 2008 and has presumably been waiting for market conditions to improve before making a final commitment.
Player has described the property he’s been given as “absolutely stunning,” and a press release from his Travelers Rest, South Carolina-based design firm says that each of the layout’s holes will offer views of Boka Bay or the Adriatic Sea.
A couple of years ago, a developer who’s walked the site told me that “it doesn’t have an ounce of dirt on it.” If that’s true, Player will need to truck in a substantial amount of fill.
The original version of this post first appeared in the August 2012 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
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Thank you for this post. It was very informative. The course sounds like it will be beautiful an difficult. I will probably need my gps range finder to help me navigate the course.
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