New facilities to open in early April.
In early April, Marina Kaštela will open a number of new facilities, in which 60 million kuna were invested in the last year and a half: a sailing club with a boat ramp, a 300-metre promenade, a two-megawatt substation and a large business centre with a swimming pool.
Marina Kaštela was opened in 2002. Due to its location and the possibility of accepting mega-yachts, as well as the professional approach to guests, it has become a favourite nautical destination for yachtsmen and sailors. This reconstruction, which was conducted as four separate projects, is the most important and financially significant upgrade in the past 15 years. It will raise the quality level of the marina to a significantly higher level.
With the new facilities, the popular marina near Split and the Resnik airport will become the largest and best equipped nautical centre in Dalmatia, with all the amenities needed for professional and amateur sailors and yachtsmen, as well as charter companies and ship owners, from the smallest ones to mega-yachts. The works are coming to an end, and Miran Tomasović, the development director of Marina Kaštela, presented some of the new facilities.
“The new sailing centre at Marina Kaštela will be able to host the largest regattas, such as the European and world championships for the Olympic classes. It is a state-of-the-art facility with all the necessary amenities, including a large hangar for boats, equal to the best such centres in the Mediterranean, such as those in Barcelona and Valencia. Particularly significant is a new sailboat ramp, where 90 boats can be launched into the sea simultaneously. In less than half an hour, 300 boats can be put into the sea, which no other marina or a sailing club in Croatia can do. The sailing centre will also be a training base for international sailors, and we have already started negotiations with several European sailing associations,” Tomasović said.
The sailing centre is located right next to the sea and includes a fitness centre with changing rooms and toilets, and an a la carte restaurant. Around it, a new 300-metre-long promenade has been built, next to which there is a large restaurant open dining area. The second newly-built building includes a business centre with offices, and there is also a 25-metre pool compliant with all the LEN rules and with the required track width, which means that it will be able to host official swimming competitions. After the swimming pool in the Poljud neighbourhood in Split, which was built for the Mediterranean Games in 1979, this is the largest swimming pool in Split-Dalmatia County, with more than 100,000 people in the catchment area. The pool will be open to the public throughout the year.
The construction of a two-megawatt substation has strengthened the infrastructure at the outer pier of the marina, where mega-yachts are moored. Until now, the electricity issues were limiting its potential. “The outer pier is 500 metres long, and this space was always filled during the peak season. Now, we have the ability to moor the yachts in this area perpendicularly, so we will be able to accommodate a larger number of vessels. The biggest yacht we received last season was 115 metres long,” said Tomasović.
At the site of the current management building of Marina Kaštela, a four-star hotel with 80 rooms and a 200-bed hostel will be built. They will be intended for guests of the marina, but also for athletes who will come there to train and compete. This part of the project is still in the planning phase. Before that, works on the service facilities will be completed – the new travel lift and the shoreline.
Marina Kaštela is working on another major project. The marina owner Joško Berket bought half of the premises of the former Jugovinil factory last year, with about 250,000 square metres of useful area, of which about 50,000 metres belong to the maritime domain. There he plans to construct a new nautical marina with the capacity of about 450 berths.
“The new marina has been entered into the spatial plan, and the urban zoning plan of the area is being prepared. In addition to the marina, we plan to build warehouses and business premises, hangars and green areas. The whole area of the former Jugovinil factory will have a completely new look, and we expect that about 2,000 people will be employed there. Fortunately, our service areas are located right between Marina Kaštela and the planned new marina. By merging these two areas with a total of 900 berths, Marina Kaštela will become the largest Croatian marina, along with Punat Marina on Krk”, said Tomasović.
