Large holiday resort will pop up on Popski Beach on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast

Water, sand and cement are needed to make concrete. All three ingredients are obtained from nature, so pouring thousands of cubic meters of concrete along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast may therefore seem like a natural process to some. For decades, this logic has driven Bulgarian developers, who, seeing an opportunity to build another hotel, try not to miss it.

The most recent example is the intention of Eco Camp EOOD to build a holiday village with "camping units" on Popski Beach in Tsarevo. The development proposal dates to November 2023, and recently - on May 10 of this year - a public discussion was held about it.

The developer’s plans

According to the project documentation, the resort will have camping and glamping areas, mobile homes, villas, a VIP area, a restaurant with a swimming pool and a sports center. In addition to all this, a summer cinema, parking lots, playgrounds, as well as two-story villas will be built.

The camping area is planned with 24 places for campers and 48 caravans. Guests will have two service buildings with toilets and showers.

9 glamping tents and 7 tree houses are planned in the luxury area. Each VIP camping area will also have an artificial lagoon. In the northern part, a set of 63 mobile homes has been designed, located between common areas and islands.

In the common areas there will be a restaurant, swimming pool, barbecue, children's playgrounds, gazebos, a spa center with an indoor pool and sauna, a soccer field, two tennis courts and a beach volleyball court. There will also be a shared workspace area.

In addition to all this, conventional villa buildings are also planned in the holiday village, which becomes clear from the development proposal.

For the construction of the resort village, 19 land lots in Tsarevo municipality have been secured. The project will be located on 100 acres, with the mobile and stationary homes set on 24 acres.

The plan is to construct the complex next to Popski Beach, which is located north of Tsarevo and south of Arapya. The landscape around has been spoiled by the ghostly "Costa del Croco" - a large holiday complex that has remained unfinished for more than two decades now.

According to Eco Camp EOOD, their new development will actually improve the scenery and hide the eyesore of the abandoned construction. In short, new concrete will be poured to hide the old.

A minimum number of villas will be built, the main function of which is to hide the view of the "ghost town" on the Black Sea coast - the abandoned construction of the "Costa del Croco" complex near Tsarevo", Eco Camp wrote in response to questions from Economic.bg, related to the project.

More about the project’s developer

One of the most famous Bulgarian IT companies, SiteGround, is behind Eco Camp. The entry of the tech entrepreneurs Ivo Tsenov and Tenko Nikolov into the real estate business began with the establishment of the joint-stock company Smart Property Fund in the fall of 2020, which quickly gained popularity.

The IT company's portfolio thus includes the limited liability company Eco Camp, whose manager is Atanas Kaloyanov.

Eco Camp refused to comment on their investment size in the holiday resort in Tsarevo, but its reps explained that the land was chosen because it had already been "announced for sale precisely for such a purpose – developing a tourist site, a campsite".

Economic.bg asked the developers why they planned such a large-scale construction on this land with such a quantity of concrete since the project seems very different from the general concept of camping.

The project envisages the development of only one-fifth of the area purchased by us. Our solution for minimal construction is based on the fact that the terrain is located near a protected area. We do not foresee the construction of concrete parking lots, these will be grass and/or gravel, depending on the terrain," Eco Camp reps wrote back.

The development proposal has already been approved by the regional health department and the Basin Directorate without objections. The next step is the environmental expert council at the Regional Environmental and Water Department of Burgas. Only after that, if everything in the documents is in order, will a building permit be issued.

We want the region to develop, but it is worrisome when it happens piecemeal," Tsarevo Mayor Marin Kirov commented to Economic.bg.

He said that the municipality is extremely cautious about developer intentions in the region, as there is still no General Development Plan for the area.

The project itself is quite mixed. Tents, bungalows, campers and caravans have been planned there - but also massive construction. The expediency of the development and how such a holiday complex would fit into the surroundings must be assessed," says the mayor.

He adds that if the environmental inspection approves the impact assessment and finds no violations, the municipality does not have the legal basis to stop this project or sabotage it.

We will enforce the law as it is.”

General development plan of Tsarevo

Tsarevo Municipality has not had a General Development Plan for about 15 years, but according to Marin Kirov, work is already going in the right direction.

Since the beginning of this year, by order of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works (MRRB), a draft General Development Plan is being prepared. It is drafted by the National Center for Regional Development, which is a subsidiary of the MRRB.

About three weeks ago, we were presented with the outline of the General Development Plan, and we were assured that in June it will be completed and presented to the contractor to be subjected to public discussions. So, there is progress on that front," says Kirov.

The texts of the Development Plan stipulate that municipal territories south of Tsarevo, including Varvara, Sinemorets, Rezovo and further into the Strandzha Mountain, will be entirely protected areas. Only the towns of Tsarevo and Lozenets should remain urbanized areas.

For us, this represents a balance and we will not protest against the proposal made in this way," says the mayor.

Translated by Tzvetozar Vincent Iolov