Egypt Billionaire Builds Swiss Resort to Compete With Verbier

http://businessweek.mobi/detail.jsp?key=201443&rc=eu&p=0&all=1

I continually shake my head at news reporters.

I mean was "Nazi" in there so that search engines would have something else for them to find?

I read about this with dismay yesterday. Another good ski resort about to go to sh!t. :(

Blimey a lot of negativity on this subject......

Update.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture/Bankrolling_a_new_Swiss_resort.html?mobileTopicId=1221500&view=mobileDetail&cid=28577428

Maybe here but not in Andermatt! Andermatt used to be an important staging post on the Gotthard pass road, but has been in decline since the building of the Gotthard rail and road tunnels. It received a further blow when Swiss army left making 1400 employees redundant. So when Samih Sawiris rolled up in 2005 and offered to buy the land previously occupied by the army (much of it contaminated) and spend a $1 billion (of his own money) on building a resort that would employ 2000 people, some of the locals are said to have remarked that he bore a striking resemblance to William Tell! Nevertheless he still had to get his plans passed by the federal, cantonal and local planning authorities. There's a lot of info on Swissinfo http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture/Bankrolling_a_new_Swiss_resort.html?cid=28577428 if you want to see what it will look like when finished http://andermatt-swissalps.ch/default.aspxb the webcams are also worth a look http://andermatt-swissalps.ch/subContent.aspx?SubSectionId=43

Swingbeep, it's quite remarkable that the Swiss have suspended the Lex Koller legislation for this initiative. Usually they cite the need for retention of the legislation to prevent the dilution of Swiss property ownership.

The government no longer thinks that "Lex Koller" is necessary, they tried to repeal it in 2007 http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/internal_affairs/Property_rules_could_get_simpler_for_foreigners.html?cid=249824 but parliament sent the bill back to the federal council with a request that they consider the introduction of some safeguards. These included a minimum residence time as a prerequisite for the purchase of property, measures to solve the problem of under utilised second homes ("cold beds") and the bills compatibility with the popular initiative "Save Swiss Soil" there has as yet been no further progress. So when Sawiris requested exemption it was no big deal, he was after all the only serious bidder for the army barracks and training grounds which included lead contaminated firing ranges.

In order to deflect any criticism he first offered the property for sale exclusively to the Swiss, he only started marketing the development to foreigners at the end of the summer. By his own admission this was a tactical decision, he wants to gain long term acceptance here. The army has a lot of surplus land and property 90 – 95% of which is classified as unsaleable so there may be further opportunities in the future.