Sea Breeze or Hurricane? A Resort Project Raises Concerns in Uzbekistan

On August 2, Uzbekistan’s Cabinet of Ministers approved a $5 billion tourism complex project personally proposed last December to President Shavkat Mirzyoyev by Azerbaijani businessman Emin Agalarov. The project was approved absent any apparent tender process, environmental assessment, or public comment period, illustrating the persistence of top-down decision-making in New Uzbekistan.

Known as Sea Breeze Uzbekistan, the project entails the leasing of 577 hectares of land beside the Charvak reservoir northeast of Tashkent in Boʻstonliq district to construct a “seasonal resort complex” worth $5 billion. The Cabinet decision deemed Agalarov Development’s proposal as the best, though it is not clear what other proposals – if any – were considered. A British architectural firm, Scott Brownrigg, has already been engaged “in order to quickly and efficiently develop the master plan for this project.”

At a press conference on July 23, after a series of agreements were signed related to the project in June,  Minister of Ecology Aziz Abdukhakimov urged the public and media to wait before critiquing the Sea Breeze proposal. “Let's see the proposal before saying no,” he said.

Abdukhakimov promised that once project documents were submitted, there would be a period for public discussion.

A week later, the Cabinet approved the project – specifically approving its simultaneous design and construction. There was no public discussion, as the actual plans don’t exist yet.

Public Outcry and Retroactive PR

After the project had been approved by the Cabinet, and public outcry intensified, the Uzbek government attempted to explain its rationale. The Ministry of Investments, Industry and Trade published an explainer on August 6, taking note of some public concerns.

Justifying the selection of one investor for such a large project, the ministry argued, “One developer means a single architecture, a large sewage system, roads, landscaping systems and responsibility. If the land were divided among several developers, there would be conflict, chaos and the impossibility of control.” The ministry noted that Agalarov has experience, pointing to the original Sea Breeze resort in Azerbaijan.

The ministry stressed that the project will be “implemented entirely on the basis of private funds” and that “all financial risks are borne by the investor.”

One issue observers noted in the announcement were the generous leasing terms. As explained by Kun.uz, citing government statements, the market price for rent would have been 1.7 trillion Uzbek soms (around $134 million), but it was set at 17 billion soms ($1.3 million) – 100 times less – to be paid in installments over five years.

The ministry said the rent figure had been reduced to a “symbolic level” to “encourage investment,” citing examples from Vietnam and Mexico of zero-cost leases offered to encourage investment. The ministry also added that the investor will pay a $240 million “infrastructure fee” that will be used to build “sewers, roads, bridges, and treatment plants” and other development and modernization projects in the region.

Importantly, Agalarov Develoment isn’t responsible for the construction of this supporting infrastructure – the Uzbek government is.

In regard to environmental concerns, the ministry claimed that the discharge of wastewater into the reservoir would be strictly forbidden and the investor would be required to build a sewage system to handle the resort’s waste. The ministry also said trees would be planted, energy-saving technology would be implemented, and “environmental monitoring will be carried out at every stage.”

Unmentioned in the ministry’s explainer is a potential problem identified in a July 29 video report from RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service, Ozodlik: a Soviet-era “arsenic burial ground.” Between 1938 and 1946, industrial waste from the nearby Soyuzmishyak combine was stored in Tashkent region’s Boʻstonliq district. As recently as 2021, Prosecutor General Nigmatilla Yuldashev aired concerns about water contamination from the site. Speaking to parliament, he said, “There is a toxic waste disposal site in the area of the Charvak reservoir – the so-called ‘arsenic burial ground.’ Water leakage from this area will lead to contamination of drinking water in the Tashkent region, the city of Tashkent and other regions.”

The Tashkent Regional Ecology Department called the Ozodlik report “fake and unfounded” and said that work had been completed last year at the site, which adequately addressed contamination concerns. Ozodlik noted that information about such work had never been made public.

The Azerbaijani Oligarch

Sea Breeze Uzbekistan is not Emin Agalarov’s first project in the country. In August 2024, in conjunction with a visit by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Tashkent, Agalarov Development announced the construction of a $133 million residential complex and hotel in central Tashkent. The company said the complex would consist of “several high-rise 21-story towers and a 27-story main tower.” The project is planned to take three years to complete.

Agalarov is a 45-year-old Azerbaijani-Russian businessman and singer with important family connections and an eye on expanding into Central Asia. He is a former in-law of President Aliyev, having been married to Aliyev’s daughter Leyla from 2006 to 2015, and he is the son of Azerbaijani-Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov, head of the Crocus Group. Besides his career as a musician, performing under the stage name Emin, Agalarov has followed in his father’s footsteps, working for Crocus Group from 2001 to 2023, when he set up his own company, Agalarov Development. In December 2024 he was elected chairman of the Azerbaijan-Russia Business Council.

That same month he pitched his Sea Breeze resort project directly to Mirziyoyev.

A few months later, when the Uzbek president made a state visit to Azerbaijan in early July, Agalarov welcomed both Mirziyoyev and Aliyev to his resort on the Caspian Sea coast outside Baku.

Two weeks later, Agalarov and Aliev took Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, former president of Turkmenistan and currently chairman of the Halk Maslahaty, on the exact same tour.

Earlier in 2025, Agalarov visited Kyrgyzstan’s Issuk-kul. “...Perhaps, in the near future, a small Sea Breeze will appear here,” he said.

A Sea Breeze or a Hurricane?

In its explainer regarding the Sea Breeze Uzbekistan project, the Ministry of Investments, Industry and Trade listed the ways society would benefit, starting with thousands of new jobs; the construction of educational and medical institutions, as well as roads; an increase in tourism flows; tax revenue increases and the construction of “ecology, greening, and the long-awaited water and sewage system necessary for the Charvak region.”

Concerns persist that these benefits will never materialize, and that the risks – environmental and financial – are not being adequately considered as Mirziyoyev, Aliyev, and Agalarov rush ahead to build a resort that most Uzbeks will never be able to afford to stay at.

A night at the original Sea Breeze in Baku in late August cost upwards of $170. As of 2024, the average monthly nominal salary in Uzbekistan was $389. According to Ozodlik, where once it was free to access the beach in Baku where the original Sea Breeze sits, the privilege now costs $30.

In July, Agalarov responded to media questions about the project. He said its location was Mirziyoyev’s idea.

“Your president’s recommendation was to see Charvak,” Agalarov said. “I went there and was delighted with the nature. The president wants to make Charvak a structured resort area, not a chaotic one where people have nowhere to go to the toilet, and there are not enough hotel rooms and apartments. Of all the builders in Charvak, it will be easier for the state to establish communication with me, because I am the only one and I will be building in one place.”