Georgia Lists Ten Tskaltubo Spas For Sale

The Georgian government has listed ten Soviet-era sanatoriums in the town of Tskaltubo for auction. The properties go live on October 20, and the online bidding process ends on November 15. While the entry price for the most famous building, the Medea sanatorium, is $3.3 million, the total financial commitment for a buyer extends far beyond that initial figure.

The terms for the Medea property are the strictest of the group. A successful bidder must pledge an additional $24 million toward a five-year renovation plan. This investment is designed to create a facility with at least 120 guest rooms, conference halls, and restaurants. The other nine sanatoriums in the package carry similar obligations. Their starting prices range from $1 million to $3.5 million, but each comes with a mandate to invest heavily in restoration work.

Frederic Le Fichoux, a commercial real estate expert who contributed to a 2020 feasibility study on the town, warns that fixing single buildings may not be enough to revive the area. He argues that the wider infrastructure remains neglected. "If you are one investor and you buy, you renovate that property that you bought, you turn it around," Le Fichoux said, "but then the rest of the destination is still kept as a ruin." He believes public money for roads and private reinvestment are both necessary for the town to succeed.

The state has attempted to sell these properties before with mixed results. Seven sanatoriums were sold in earlier auctions, but three have returned to state ownership. Medea was one of them, taken back in 2024 after its previous buyer failed to meet contractual obligations. David Sichinava, a Canada-based academic who grew up in Tskaltubo, described the redevelopment approach as "all or nothing." He noted that the town is exempt from permit fees for casino operators, a break that can reach $1.9 million a year elsewhere in Georgia.

The town gained national attention in October 2019 when Bidzina Ivanishvili, founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, promised to buy the spas. He called their condition "depressing" and pledged a "full-scale rehabilitation." Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said on October 20 that the plan was dropped due to the pandemic and de facto sanctions against Ivanishvili. Since the 1990s, the buildings have also housed displaced people from the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Sichinava estimates that 100 to 200 displaced residents still live in the structures. Madonna Mushkudiani, who fled Abkhazia in 1992 and moved into an apartment in 2023, said, "We miss every minute we spent there. It was our second home."