Romanian billionaire and former tennis player Ion Tiriac wants to build a sports center on the site of the old Metro Otopeni store located near Bucharest, via his company Tiriac Holdings.

Tiriac has moved one of his car showrooms from the site to make room for this project, reports local Ziarul Financiar.

Tiriac Holdings plans to build a multipurpose hall that will include an ice rink, a gym with Olympic-sized swimming pool, and an auto circuit that will host defensive driving classes. The investment will amount to tens of million of euros.

Tiriac Holdings’ representatives told Ziarul Financiar that they had some projects drawn up for that space, without going into details on the investment.

The Bucharest City Hall has been trying to build a new multipurpose hall and an ice rink in the capital for years. The new multipurpose hall located in the Lia Manoliu sports compound was supposed to be ready last year, but the work is delayed due to complaints filed against the tender organized to award the construction contract.

The Lia Manoliu sports complex should also include a tennis arena.

Ion Tiriac announced earlier this year that he would sell the ATP tournament in Bucharest (BRD Nastase Tiriac Open) as the city doesn’t have a tennis arena suitable to host such a competition.

Earlier this year he said he talked to former Prime Minister Victor Ponta last year about the possibility of getting European funds to finance sports venues in Bucharest, but the PM told him that nobody in the administration would sign anything as everybody feared the anticorruption prosecutors. The episode made the international media.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com