Kumrovec political school is not the only ruined state property
Government plans to sell the real estate it owns in order to fill the budget holes, but the problem is that some of the property is so neglected it is not worth anything. One of the examples is the former Communist Political School in Kumrovec which is so badly damaged that the Swiss want to shoot a horror movie there, reports Jutarnji List on March 13, 2016.
Once upon a time Communist politicians were educated there, and the last school director was Ivica Račan, who many years later became first SDP president and then in 2000 the prime minister. Later on, military units were situated there, then the police and finally refugees. Today, everything is completely ruined.
This is how the state cares for its assets, and it believes it could sell such a property. A hospital, a school or a retirement home could have been located there, but instead the complex has been deteriorating for 10 years, so the latest offer that the Municipality of Kumrovec has received for the building was to make a horror movie there. The offer was sent by a company from Switzerland, the Kumrovec Mayor Dragutin Ulama said. “At the competition in 2007, the state has received a bid involving over 20 million kuna for this, but now it would be ridiculous to ask even a kuna for it”, said the mayor.
The nearby Memorial Centre, also available for sale, is in a slightly better condition. “Kumrovec has been actively working for the past ten years to make these facilities functional. I think this is all about the stigma of Kumrovec and about the asking price”, said Ulama, adding that he was not sure why the property had not been sold earlier.
Tito’s villa in Lovran is another good indicator how the state cares for its own property. Smashed and destroyed, it no longer has any value. It is certainly not worth 10 million kuna, the amount the government seeks, because its only value is its seafront location.
Meanwhile, the question remains whether the government will succeed to sell the Kremenšek villa in Opatija, another structure whose value is based just on its location. The villa is completely ruined. “The state is asking for 19.2 million kuna, but the realistic price is 9 million kuna, as the villa has to be renovated. It is a ruined structure, and homeless people had been living there”, said Milan Mandić, owner of a real estate agency.
