Orbel Development AD began on October 18 a series of meetings with the Dobrinishte community aimed at getting residents' approval for its large-scale ski complex in the area, the English-language online edition of Dnevnik business daily quoted company representatives as saying.

Local community approval is the last necessary step before the project starts.

The meetings are taking place after, in May 2007, Bansko municipality named Orbel, a joint venture between Galchev Engineering Group, the development arm of diversified Galchev Holding, and Norema tourism holding, an investment fund majority-owned by Austrian capital, as investor for a project offered a year ago. The decision replaces an earlier municipal decision to award the project to Dobrinishte Ski EOOD, an outfit incorporated by Bulgarian-Irish company Sunset Resort, in turn 50-50 owned by, respectively, Boyan Bonev and Irish nationals Aaron Tracey, Joseph Sullivan and Neil Oliver O'Reilly.

The new decision was made even though Dobrinishte Ski EOOD received in October last year a first class investor certificate from the InvestBulgarian Agency. At the time, the price tag for the project was the equivalent of 260 million leva.

The municipality preferred Orbel to Dobrinishte Ski EOOD because of Orbel's promise it would refrain from mass construction and would ensure minimal damage to the countryside.

The pledge to concentrate the construction of facilities in the urban zone and less in the ski zone was reiterated October 18 at the meeting with the Dobrinishte community.

Orbel Development completed its company registration on September 26 this year and has now a full set of permits to carry out the project.

These include approval for land to be used by the complex's ski facilities. In this way, about 13 000m of ski runs and facilities will be developed on land in state ownership, and a further 9000m on municipal land.

Project partners said earlier this year that starting work on the project is contingent on Dobrinishte community approval.

Orbel assured Dobrinishte residents that all infrastructure to be built as part of the project would conform to EU environmental standards and would seek to preserve the uniqueness of local nature.

The investors will also work in close partnership with Ulen, the company to run the Bansko ski zone under concession. Orbel will develop the complex with Bansko municipality as partner and author of the project.

The project, to adjoin Bulgaria's fastest developing ski resort Bansko and lying on Pirin outskirts, has an estimated worth of 200 million leva. It will add up to the existing ski facilities, namely the Dobrinishte hotel with 130 bed capacity, Gotse Delchev lodge (hizha) with capacity of 40 beds and Bezbog lodge with 140 beds. The ski zone as at present includes a five km ski run, which is 25-30m wide. In addition, it has two double-seat lifts of combined length of 3200m, other ski lifts, a ski wardrobe and a ski school.

The project will follow a design by architect Emil Lekov, who also devised the overhaul and expansion of the Bansko ski zone.

The first phase of the new project seeks to expand the ski zone to a total area of 2000 hectares. The ski runs alone are due to expand total length by 19 000m to 22 500m.

The zone will also have the so-called tourist tracks. Combined length should be 19km.

The lift system, for its part, will be expanded by a six km multi-seat cabin lift. The first phase alone is said to cost Orbel Developments some 40 million euro. The second phase, to entail the construction of hotels with three to five stars, should expand existing bed capacity to 10 000 beds.

Expectations are that the complex should be ready in three years' time and boost Dobrinishte's profile of a year-round ski tourism and balneology centre.

Once completed, the project should give jobs to 1500 people. In its development stages, the investor will keep 1000 people on the payroll, sources from Orbel Developments said.