SJSC State Real Estate (SRE) has temporarily suspended the auction of Ērgļi Vocational Secondary School and warehouse buildings, garages and hangars. At present, we identify all the properties in the portfolio and evaluate their possible need for the public administration, so that if needed, we can ensure the availability of the required premises, informs Andris Vārna, Board Member of SRE.
In order to give a new life to the building complex of the former vocational secondary school, in February 2022 SRE announced an auction of Ērgļi Vocational Secondary School and land (Oškalna iela 10) and buildings and land suitable for production (Oškalna iela 14). By 2 March, when the auction was suspended, eight parties had shown interest in the school building and land, and the property price had risen from 30 thousand euro to 32 thousand euro (four auction steps). In turn, 14 parties were interested in the second property and by the end of the auction its price had risen from 60 thousand euro to 70.5 thousand euro (21 auction steps).
"Given the new circumstances, we decided to temporarily suspend the auction until the situation stabilises. At present, we identify all the properties in the SRE portfolio, so that if necessary, we can respond quickly and offer the most appropriate options for the provision of state functions. SRE has always made every effort to ensure that the assets managed by the capital company are managed in accordance with good practice and are used to the fullest extent possible or, if necessary, alienated. When announcing the properties of Ērgļi Vocational Secondary School and its land, as well as the complex of buildings suitable for production for auction, the situation in the world and in Latvia was different,” points out Andris Vārna, board member of SRE.
In 2011, an agreement was signed between the Environmental Investment Fund and Vidzeme Technology and Design Technical School on the implementation of the project “Energy Efficient Reconstruction of Ērgļi Vocational Secondary School Official Accommodation Facilities with Passive Buildings Competent”. Its post-monitoring period ended in 2020, thus all legal obligations that could and may arise in connection with the implementation of the respective project are binding to Vidzeme Technology and Design Technical School, and not to the new owner – the Ministry of Finance (SRE). On 30 June 2020, by the Order of the Cabinet of Ministers (No. 353 “On Transfer of State Real Estate Possessed by the Ministry of Education and Science to the Ministry of Finance”), the Ministry of Education and Science, with the assessment that the property is not necessary for public administration functions, transferred it to the possession of the Ministry of Finance, under the supervision of SRE. The Order of the Cabinet of Ministers determined for SRE to take over the Ērgļi Vocational Secondary School real estate, with a total land area of 7.7 ha, to separate 0.24 ha of forest land from it, and to transfer the separated land to the Ministry of Agriculture. During the separation of forest land, the plot on which the school buildings with land are located (Oškalna iela 10 with a total land area of 1.5 ha and 3 buildings) and the buildings with land used for production (Oškalna iela 14, with a total land area of 5.7 ha and 7 buildings) are separated. To determine the starting price of the auction, SRE received the valuation of the properties performed by SIA “Vindeks” in December 2021, respectively 30 thousand and 60 thousand euro.
SRE currently continues works on 54 different construction sites of national importance, with a total project budget of 223 million euro. The company provides professional real estate management and administration for approximately 400 real estate properties with 1100 buildings of 1.02 million square metres and more than 3600 land properties of 9.6 million square metres. The company was founded in 1996 and is 100% owned by the Ministry of Finance.
