As Barbara Ban/Novac writes on the 27th of January, 2020, Pula’s Arena Hospitality Group hotelier from is investing as much as 363 million kuna in its portfolio in southern Istria this year.
The largest investment, of about 245 million kuna, is the one in Pula’s Hotel Brioni on Verudela, which has been expected for many years, and will last two years, then they’ll invest in a nearby apartment complex called Arena Verudela Beach and the Medulin campsite Arena Grand Kažela.
The complete renovation and repositioning of the popular Brioni Hotel began this year. The opening of the newly renovated hotel is planned for the summer season of 2021, and the facility will be closed throughout this year. The hotel was built back in the early 1970s and was one of the most popular in the former Yugoslavia. Many celebrities of the time stayed there. The seven-storey hotel will remodel its rooms and other facilities such as meeting and conference rooms. It will also boast an indoor pool, a wellness centre with saunas and relaxation rooms, a fitness centre and an outdoor infinity pool with its own sunbathing area.
After the complete renovation, it will be a contemporary luxury hotel with 227 rooms and suites and the ambition to become the mainstay of the Arena Hospitality Group’s hotel business, a statement from the company said.
Several restaurants and bars at the hotel will offer their guests a varied gastronomic offer ranging from local, Mediterranean cuisine to international specialities from around the world. After the investment, the hotel will be branded a world-renowned high quality hotel brand, the Arena Hospitality Group added.
Not far from the Brioni Hotel in the Verudela area, the renovation of the Arena Verudela Beach apartment complex, worth a massive 68 million kuna, will continue. Last year, ten accommodation units were renovated, and this year, the remaining 146 apartment units are to be renovated too.
”These modernly furnished and fully equipped apartments for four to six people will be categorised with four stars. In addition to the accommodation units, the Lighthouse restaurant, located on the beach in front of the resort itself, will be completely renovated, and thus the quality of the entire tourist product will be. A complete renovation of the Yacht restaurant underneath the Park Plaza Histria Hotel is underway, in which public spaces and rooms are being renovated,” the Arena Hospitality Group from Pula said.
This year, they will also invest 50 million kuna into the Medulin camp Kažela, with a total of 150 million kuna already invested in this area last year. This is the second phase of the investment which will turn it into a modern and high-quality four-star category camping facility.
This year’s works include the further replacement of mobile homes and the installation of 45 new luxury camping homes. For owners of modern campers, luxury, spacious lots will be adapted to the best, “premium” positions by the sea. These are large parcels of land larger than 150 square metres, offering complete infrastructure – electricity, water and drainage. As part of the investment, all the sanitary facilities intended for guests of the camping pitches will be renovated, which will increase its competitiveness among other campsites, the company said.
In addition, the restaurant, bar and sports centre with the proper horticultural landscaping of public areas will be completely renovated. Throughout the camp, guests will have high-speed wireless Internet access and IPTV services (TV channels through new OTT technology) via smart TVs in camping homes.
It’s worth noting that last year, the Arena Hospitality Group invested more than 250 million kuna in its tourism portfolio. With this year’s investments, the Arena Hospitality Group will almost completely rebuild its facilities at Verudela and bring them up to an impressive four-star level.
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