When it comes to tourism, even more so about the highly desired elite tourism, many will mention Hvar alongside Dubrovnik, thinking of the town of Hvar on the island of Hvar, rather than the island as a whole comprising several towns and municipalities. However, the truth is that there is a ferry port on that island, serving as the lifeblood for the entire island, and that ferry port is located in the town of Stari Grad. It should be noted that two years ago, this town celebrated 2400 years of its existence. In close proximity is the famous Stari Grad ager, a world-renowned tourist and historical attraction that provides good income for many entrepreneurs, especially family farms. Thanks to the tunnel, the journey to the town of Hvar has been reduced to a negligible fifteen minutes. Recently, a ‘port’ for yachts, boats, and small vessels (not for ferries) that wish to hide from the wind has been completed in the town, which is on par with any other port anywhere in Europe, perhaps even better. It is wonderful to read official data and see that the construction (the investor is the Port Authority of Split-Dalmatia County) of the coastline lined with beautiful white stone cost four times less than similar interventions in private marinas in the nearby or distant neighborhood. The aforementioned has allowed many investors (both domestic and foreign) to express interest in investments in Stari Grad, and this is the best possible realization of state policy to promote tourism and investments in general, as well as to encourage the development of the island, which must sustain itself for 12 months a year, where there must be more births than deaths, etc.
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To the Detriment of Investors
About ten years ago, a large fund appeared that, unlike many others, was buying construction land, paying quite well for it, and expected cooperation from local authorities because it was not only about direct payments into the local budget but also about huge amounts for construction, which are usually awarded to domestic companies. Unfortunately, for several years, practically nothing happened, except that investors felt largely deceived because they wanted to build hotels and villas immediately, not in the distant and uncertain future. To make matters worse, due to catastrophic legal solutions, Stari Grad has been permanently in some kind of blockade due to alleged debts to former landowners on whose land hotels were built, which the state duly sold and collected, leaving the debts to local government units. Finally, things have moved, and the investor has built complete infrastructure worth about 15 million kuna as a communal contribution, which he cannot keep for himself, but it mainly belongs to the town and partly to utility companies. Thus, a huge amount of money has been invested without any security because it is invested in someone else’s. However, the trust between the investor and the town has evidently enabled such a rather unusual and unequal (to the detriment of the investor) cooperation. The investor began selling plots with organized infrastructure in a location in close proximity to the ferry port, and when those who would build for themselves according to their wishes and in accordance with planning documents appeared, some problems and ideas emerged. Specifically, to allow the excavation of garages under the buildings without increasing the dimensions of the buildings. The representative of the investor has presented the initiative in detail three times before the Urban Planning Committee as an advisory body of the City Council in the past six months, but even that was not enough to put the ‘subject’ on the Council’s agenda. It is evident that those who have already paid for the local government are no longer interesting, while a completely different approach is taken with the new investor who (to caricature) calls to say what he wants and casually takes the printed positive decision. The first investor, when he saw and understood everything, with the help of six (out of 13) councilors requested (not a thematic session to which he is entitled at the request of a third of the councilors) the inclusion of his initiative, without prejudicing what the final decision would be. Instead of complying, an urgent meeting was called (outside all legal and statutory limitations regarding deadlines and other matters) with an agenda in which the new investor was included, but not the old one. Somehow the media got hold of the information, and when a large article was published in a regional publication a day or two later, the meeting was urgently postponed to comply with the form, and the first investor is still waiting.
