Rabat – Spanish real estate company Marina d’Or has filed a request for arbitration with the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) against Morocco, claiming more than €400 million in compensation.
The case claims that Marina d’Or, after being involved in a government-backed project to rehabilitate the city of Tamesna, the government did not deliver on its commitment to deliver public infrastructure, an official statement from the company’s legal representative, Spanish law firm B. Cremades & Asociados.
According to the statement, Marina d’Or participated in the initiative on the outskirts of Rabat, launched by Morocco in 2004 to decongest overpopulated urban centers by creating new satellite cities, an initiative that had attracted significant real estate investment.
Under a deal that would require the government to provide public facilities and infrastructure, the Spanish company became involved in the construction of two real estate complexes in the project “New City of Tamesna,” the statement explains.
However, the company claims that Morocco’s government did not act to provide the said facilities and infrastructure. The government announced it was updating the urban planning of the city, leading the project to become “a few isolated buildings, which do not even have a service of garbage collection, surrounded by illegal markets,” the law firm alleges.
In addition to the two real estate complexes in Tamesna, the Marina d’Or suit against Morocco includes claims relating to a real estate complex under the name “La Perla de Tánger,” located in Morocco’s Tangier city.
The statement claims that while constructing the projects, the Spanish company fell “victim” to a bureaucratic blockade resulting from “internal conflict” between Moroccan authorities.
The statement refers to a special report from Morocco’s Court of Audits in 2014, saying that the conflict between Morocco’s authorities was accounted for within the report.
The conflict has been standing for years, the statement specifies, stating that Marina d’Or attempted to negotiate with Morocco’s government to exit the investments in the two cities “without success.”
The company’s request for the ICSID to arbitrate is based on the Bilateral Treaty for the Promotion and Protection of Investments signed between Spain and Morocco on December 11, 1997.
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