The State Will Take Over the Vjesnik Spaces in Liquidation for 47 Million Kuna

The extraordinary assembly of Vjesnik in liquidation has made a decision on the direct sale of office space on Slavonska Avenue to the Republic of Croatia for 47,01 million kuna and authorized the liquidator Tomislav Orehovec to conclude this sales contract.

Last week’s decision followed the main assembly of Vjesnik held in July, where the regular liquidation process was initiated and it was decided that the total loss from last year of 7.76 million kuna would be ‘carried over to the next period’.

The assembly then decided to appoint lawyer Tomislav Orehovec as the liquidator of Vjesnik and to register the company Vjesnik dioničko društvo tiskarsko izdavačke djelatnosti in liquidation, abbreviated as Vjesnik, in the court register.

The decision on liquidation followed repeated announcements that some government services and other institutions could move into the Vjesnik skyscraper and annex.

As part of this, the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Property initiated the renovation of part of the Vjesnik complex at the end of last year with the intention of establishing a Reconstruction Office with dozens of clerks, while the co-owners of this complex announced the sale of office spaces in three business buildings.

8.5 million kuna excluding VAT was planned for the arrangement of the Reconstruction Office. At the same time, Allegheny Financial, as one of the co-owners of the Vjesnik complex, announced the sale of office spaces in three buildings within the complex.

In addition to this real estate company and the Vjesnik printing house, the majority co-owners of the complex within the Vjesnik skyscraper are also Konzum plus (successor of Tisak within the former Agrokor), the Republic of Croatia, and VLM Cvjetno nekretnine – a company founded by Večernji list.

Excluding a few smaller co-owners, some of whom are in bankruptcy, it is precisely the majority owners of the Vjesnik complex who have taken over parts of the ownership in the skyscraper and surrounding buildings over the last thirty years, only to subsequently leave that space.

First, the complex in the shadow of the Vjesnik skyscraper was abandoned by EPH (now Hanza Media) in 2003, then Tisak, and with the departure of Večernji list to Buzin about ten years ago and the closure of Vjesnik in 2012, the last serious news editorial office left that ‘temple’ of journalism.

Only the Vjesnik printing house remains as the only major user of the space within the Vjesnik complex – skyscraper, press center, printing house, and accompanying facilities on more than 30,000 square meters.