Senses Resort is the first project of Lux Investments on the island of Hvar.
Entrepreneur Ksenija Juhn Bojađijev, a former business partner at SN Holding, after last year’s division of joint assets in which she received valuable tourist land and sites, has just implemented her first tourist project in Vrboska on the island of Hvar, reports Poslovni.hr on August 19, 2016.
The company Lux Investments, headed by Bojađijev, has completed the first phase of the investment at the site of the former Adriatic Tourist Resort. It opened a completely new and modern tourist facility called Senses Resort. The investment amounted to just under 30 million kuna, and the occupancy rate during the season has been 100 percent. This is only the first project among many planned by Lux Investments.
Interestingly, the second project of Lux Investments, which is financially even more significant, is also being developed on the island of Hvar. It includes construction of exclusive villas and apartments on a plot of land in Stari Grad. A significant amount of money has been invested in the project, but in recent years there have not been major developments due to the lack of supporting infrastructure. “Necessary roads are not being built, and that has been hampering the investment for eight years. Since the island of Hvar has become interesting to many investors, we hope that the authorities will solve the problem of supporting infrastructure”, says Ksenija Juhn Bojađijev.
Adriatic Holiday Resort was built in 1967 and it successfully operated until the beginning of the 1990s. However, the war and refugees which were accommodated there completely devastated all facilities. After the privatization was completed, a development master-plan was drafted, but investments were not possible. Ownership disputes have been ongoing since 2002 and have not yet been fully resolved. Still, after two million kuna were spent on legal fees in recent years, in 2015 the investor reached a partial settlement with the Municipality of Jelsa.
That enabled the launch of the planned investment. The plan provides for a second phase as well, which will include a plot surrounding the tourist resort, which is the subject of a dispute with the Municipality of Jelsa. “In the future, we hope to reach a settlement with Jelsa for the rest of the land which surrounds the tourist resort. We plan to build smaller buildings that will fit with the current concept of the tourist resort”, said Juhn.
The new resort in many ways fulfils conditions to get four stars, but due to the size of the rooms it is classified as a three star resort. Juhn says that rules do not allow the inclusion of balconies and loggias when square area of rooms is being calculated. “I think we can all agree that for guests on vacation it is more important to have a balcony of four squares metres than additional two square metres inside the room.” The controversial rules limit the prices at which rooms can be sold.
“Our guests recognize the quality of accommodation and services, so we expect to have the 100 percent occupancy rate in September as well. Financial results and indicators are progressing as planned. The biggest problem we face is the number and quality of workers, which is a problem for all the hoteliers in Croatia. Of course, we have a lot of work ahead of us in order to improve all aspects of service, but we believe that the young management team of the hotel can do it”, says Juhn, adding that the project greatly improves the visibility of Vrboska and the island of Hvar on the global tourism map.
