AP: Rio Has No Contract With 2016 Golf Course Land Owner

AP's Tales Azzoni reports that a court has ordered the city of Rio de Janeiro to hand over the contracts it has with the landowner of the 2016 Olympic golf course property. City officials responded by saying that no such documents existed.

The city said it hasn't signed any contracts for the golf course because it will be a private undertaking. It had publicly announced earlier this year, however, that it made an agreement with the land owner to have the course built on it. It said it would alter some of the building requirements in the area and, in exchange, the land owner and a construction company would pay for the $30 million course.

"The golf course is an undertaking exclusively private, which will be developed by the Rio 2016 Committee," the mayor's office said in a statement.

Local Olympic organizers said they expect the contracts for the golf course to be finalized by the end of June, and that the city wouldn't be directly involved even though it was responsible for choosing the land and facilitating the agreement.

And this...

But the lawyer for the company disputing the ownership of the land, Elmway Participacoes, said Friday he wants to suspend any activity in the land until a decision on the property is made. Sergio Antunes Lima Jr. said the city doesn't have the right to make any deals to build on the land before a judge decides who owns it.