Tbilisi City Hall has announced that the permit for the demolition of the so-called “Rike Jugs” has already been issued. According to a 2025 decree of the Georgian government, the City Hall recalled, the development of this territory entails the implementation of a hotel project, which may include demolition work.
“We would like to remind you that for many years this area was an abandoned construction site. Since 2022, it has been in private ownership. According to the decree of the Government of Georgia dated May 6, 2025, the development of the territory provides for the creation of a hotel project, which may include demolition work.
The development of the real estate property includes (but is not limited to) the creation of a hotel, which may involve construction and/or demolition work in accordance with the procedure established by law, commissioning of the relevant buildings and structures (if necessary), as well as the launch of the hotel’s operations,” the relevant government decree states.
Regarding the permit issued by the Architectural Service of Tbilisi City Hall, it has emerged that, based on a positive decision of the Cultural Heritage Protection Council, established under Tbilisi City Hall with the participation of representatives of the municipality and the Ministry of Culture of Georgia (Protocol No. 13 of April 16, 2026), the Tbilisi Architectural Service, by Order No. 7977401 dated June 25, 2026, approved the demolition project for building No. 01/4, located on a land plot owned by Rike Dom LLC in the Rike territory (plot 65/061; cadastral code 01.17.01.065.061), and issued a permit for the demolition work.
As a reminder, it became known in May 2025 that Tbilisi City Hall intended to demolish the so-called “Rike Jugs,” which, as Tbilisi Mayor and “Georgian Dream” Secretary General Kakha Kaladze explained, “do not fit into the urban development of the city in any way; they are non-functional, completely neglected, and a garbage dump.”
Prior to this, the head of the NGO “Civil Participation Center,” Irakli Abesadze, published a post stating that the so-called “Rike Jugs” (the facility is located in Rike Park, in the old part of Tbilisi — Editor’s note) had been sold again. At this stage, the owner is the company Rike Dom, whose director is Mikheil Tkeshelashvili, an employee of the office of the Business Ombudsman of Georgia.
According to the NGO, Tkeshelashvili manages business shares belonging to Georgian Dream MP Giorgi Barvenashvili. Meanwhile, the owner of the property is N.G.B. — the owner <in the company> is Tornike Kopaliani, who is a financial manager of the developer Archi Group.
Meanwhile, Archi denied this information, stating that neither the company nor any of its employees have any connection to the purchase of this property in Rike Park in the old part of Tbilisi.
David Khidasheli himself, a businessman close to “Georgian Dream” and a witness in the so-called cartographers’ case (the David Gareji monastery case regarding the Georgian-Azerbaijani border — Editor’s note), stated that he sold the “Rike Jugs” because the project he intended to implement in Rike Park could not be realized due to the “unstable investment climate” in Georgia.
It is worth adding that the Fuksas architectural studio, led by the renowned Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas, worked on the “tubes” for 6 years. The “Rike Tubes” were intended to house a music theater and an exhibition hall. The glass and concrete buildings, clad in stainless steel, resemble a periscope, which, according to the architects’ concept, was meant to blend the modern style of Rike Park with the historical part of Tbilisi. However, the completed structure was never used for its intended purpose.
