Gov't housing agency receives 1.06 million Br compensation to let the Bank take over its holdings

Peacock Café & Restaurant, Nalbandian Cosmetics, Time Photo and Elephant Walk, fixtures of the area commonly known as Peacock are to go to leave room for the East Addis District Office the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) wants to build.

Peacock, which has been part of the Bole Road scenery for the past 27 years, and Nalbandian Cosmetics have received contract termination letters from their land lord, the Government Housing Agency (GHA), effective September 5, 2012. The adjacent Time and Elephant Walk, housed in one partitioned villa belonging to the CBE, are yet to hear from the Bank regarding their imminent move, although they have heard rumours about since 2009, according to the owner of Elephant Walk.

The letters were sent out to Peacock and Nalbandian on August 14, 2012, after Kirkos district transferred compensation payments worth 1.06 million Br from the CBE to the Government Housing Agency on May 30, 2012. The Kirkos District and the GHA had negotiated over compensation payment for long before the Agency expressed its agreement to let the Bank take over. CBE made the request for this plot, 700sqm, to the Land Development & Administration Authority lease board in 2010.

The area, also known as Addis Bank after a CBE branch, is set aside for eight to 12 storey buildings, according to officials from the Land Development Department at Kirkos District. The letter from the District that set of the negotiation for the 1.6 million Br agreement was sent to the GHA on October 10, 2009, asking for their input.

"After making our own assessment, we told them that we did not have any objections with the redevelopment plan," Adissu Ejigu, Public Relations officer for the Government Housing Agency told Fortune.

The Kirkos District approved the transfer of the land for the Bank on January 12, 2012.

"Although there was some indication in the beginning from Woreda officials that they would provide us with space for relocation, they have now told us this will not be the case," Kebru Abeza, veteran supervisor at Peackock Bar & Restaurant.

A day after the deadline of the contract termination notice, no one had come and asked the businesses to move, Fortune has learnt.

The GHA does not intend to provide an alternative location for the businesses as it believes it is only required to do so for residences, Addisu said.

Although it has finally acquired the land, the CBE is still in the planning stages to build the district office.

"We are currently conducting an in-house study, but will soon hire consultants and contractors," Yeshak informed Fortune.

The CBE operates four districts in Addis Abeba with 151 branches, 39 of them in the East Addis District. It has 396 branches outside Addis Abeba under 15 districts.