After numerous challenges that have become a symbol of the difficulties foreign investors face in Croatia, five years after purchasing the land, the main above-ground construction works on IKEA’s department store in Zagreb have finally commenced today. The opening of the department store, which will offer more than 9,000 home furnishing products across 38,000 square meters, is expected in the summer of 2014, and at the time of opening, IKEA Croatia will have around 300 employees, announced the local branch of this well-known Swedish company.
The construction of the department store will be handled by Strabag, which won the job worth 165 million kuna in an international tender. Strabag has experience in managing the construction projects of IKEA’s department stores worldwide, and they have been present in Croatia for many years, participating in the construction of several large projects.
This phase of construction was preceded by a series of extensive preparatory works. The company Zagorje gradnja relocated the drainage channel, with the value of the works amounting to just over seven million kuna. The company Bauer Spezialtiefbau, for example, is carrying out deep foundation works worth 25 million kuna. The company Kamgrad performed works valued at seven million kuna, which included earthworks and site preparation. In this package of works, the company Tehnika is also engaged, which is assembling the concrete structure of the future department store, with the value of their contract being 25.5 million kuna. Additionally, with 100 million kuna, IKEA is co-financing the construction of the new traffic hub Ivanja Reka and access roads, as well as a number of other infrastructure projects in the vicinity of the future department store.
