The future largest hotel in Split is currently under construction.
While one side of Žnjan is now barren and desolate after illegal catering facilities were torn down over the last few weeks, at the other end of the bay along the coast, construction is in full swing to build the future largest hotel in Split, reports Slobodna Dalmacija on November 6, 2017.
Namely, the Amfora Resort hotel will be a four-star hotel, aiming to receive its first guests in the spring of 2019. While small city hotels have popped up around the city of Split in recent years, this will be the first major tourist accommodation facility built in the city in over a decade. Indeed, the Amfora Resort will significantly enrich the overall hotel capacity of the city.
While Split was crowned the champion of Croatian tourism and achieved a respectable two million tourist overnights this year, many forget to acknowledge one fine detail: Croatia’s largest city on the Adriatic chronically lacks high-quality hotels.
To refresh your memory, Split already offers more than 17,000 beds in family accommodation, but what it provides in hotels is still far from what it would need to be considered a serious European destination for city-breaks or congress tourism. But with Amfora Resort, that picture could change.
Zagreb company “Plavi safir”, owned by the Split entrepreneur Zvonko Kotarac, received a building permit for the Amfora hotel project, authored by architect Emil Šverka, which will be located on the coast next to Šetalište Ivana Pavla II on Žnjan.
“We practically started this project 15 years ago, but the plans changed and, eventually, we were at the stage to get a valid building permit before the summer. In September, we started the construction, and we have currently excavated almost 80 percent. Next week the concrete work begins. The hotel will be in the category of four stars and will have 207 rooms, a congress hall of 500 square meters, restaurants, cafes and all accompanying facilities for a high category hotel. The wellness area is 1,500 thousand square meters, and there will be three swimming pools available to guests, one of which we will be able to close by a glass wall in the winter. The other two pools are exterior with a glass facade facing the sea,” said Zvonko Kotarac about the future hotel, which will accommodate more than 500 guests.
The value of the hotel construction itself is around 21 million EUR, and next to the hotel will be another 27 residential apartments which will be connected to the main hotel building by a corridor. The total investment in both facilities is around 26 million EUR, and the hotel will employ 80 full-time workers and another 40 in the season, operating with a total of 120 employees.
“The funding is secured, and the money is available. The investor is our company “Plavi safir”. We plan to open the hotel in April 2019. The interest of business partners around the world for business cooperation is great because such hotel facilities are missing in Split. Large hotel chains are interested in hotel management or franchise models. After talking to them and when we see the concrete figures and their business plans, we will decide on that. We are open to all options,” emphasizes Kotarac.
“Around 75 percent of the rooms in the hotel will have a balcony overlooking the sea, and the residential part will be marketed the same way as a hotel and will have all of the hotel services. In the hotel alone there will be six apartments of 60 square meters, and in the other building, there will be apartments of 30 to 100 square meters. At the top of the building, there will be a sunny terrace with a pool of 25 meters. The hotel will have a ground floor and eight floors. It will change the image of Žnjan for the better. It seems to us that this is the correct way to urbanize Žnjan,” adds Kotarac.
Kotarac concludes with how he chose the name ‘Amfora’.
“I have a family collection of 30 amphorae that are completely preserved. In cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, they are now listed and will be permanently exhibited at the hotel, which is named after them. The amphorae are 1,800 to 2,500 years old, and they are so valuable that they are the property of the Republic of Croatia. They are a cultural good, and it is a duty to make them available to the public, so they will be a speciality of the hotel.”
You can find the simulations of the hotel on Slobodna Dalmacija
Translated from Slobodna Dalmacija
