Interest in operating the restored Libušín is held by three companies

Rožnov pod Radhoštěm - Three interested parties have applied for the competition to operate the Libušín lodge at Pustevny in the Beskids and the neighboring Maměnka hotel. Jindřich Ondruš, the director of the Nature Museum, which manages the properties, said this to ČTK today. Libušín is expected to reopen this summer after restoration. The museum has announced the competition for the third time.

Interested parties could submit their offers until this morning. "As of today, we have received three envelopes with three offers. We will now assess them thoroughly," Ondruš stated. He hopes to select a winner in a few days, after which further negotiations and possibly contract signing will follow. The lease will be for a fixed period of five years.

The Libušín lodge, built in 1899 according to the design of architect Dušan Jurkovič, had been a national cultural monument since 1995, serving as a dining hall. However, it burned down in March 2014, after which the museum decided to restore it. Libušín will open at the end of July. According to Ondruš, it will be up to the tenant to prepare to take over the property and start operations; they have from August 1 to October 1 for this. Libušín will, however, open to the public in any case; before it operates as a restaurant, guided tours will be held there.

In the last two selection procedures for operators, Tim Hortons Slovakia won. According to today's statement from the company's representative Miroslava Martinček, the company did not apply for the third round. After the second competition, representatives of this company urged the museum to organize a new selection process. The company wanted it to contain different conditions in the rental agreement. According to the company, the proposed contract was unbalanced, allowing the lessor to terminate the lease without giving a reason.

However, according to Ondruš, the proposed agreement retained the mutual option to terminate the lease without giving a reason. "As a contributory organization of the Ministry of Culture, we are under great public scrutiny. I cannot imagine that we would terminate a lease with a tenant who fulfills the contract. Of course, the opposite situation can arise where the tenant does not fulfill it and causes problems; in that case, we have tools to resolve the situation," Ondruš said to ČTK earlier. According to him, Tim Hortons Slovakia demanded several other changes in the contract, and the museum incorporated some of the suggestions into the wording of the new offer.

"From our experiences in the gastronomy business, a quality balanced contract is the foundation of a healthy business relationship. We believed that the National Museum of Nature would present a contract in the third round of the competition that would meet these attributes and be balanced. Unfortunately, this wish was not fulfilled, which is the main reason we did not apply for the third round," Martinček stated.

Sixteen entities were interested in the second round of the selection process, but only three submitted projects. In the first competition, there were two interested parties. The museum justified their low number by stating that information about the competition may have reached interested parties late due to measures related to the new type of coronavirus; therefore, it decided to announce it again.