Villa Dubrovnik and Europrojekt Reach Settlement

The company Villa Dubrovnik, which owns the luxury hotel of the same name located in close proximity to Dubrovnik’s historical core, has reached a settlement with the Zagreb-based company Europrojekt, leading the Commercial Court in Dubrovnik to terminate the legal proceedings by dismissing the lawsuit against Villa Dubrovnik.

The Zagreb company sought around two million euros after paying one million euros as a deposit for land in Sveti Jakov (return of double deposit), which prompted the Commercial Court to issue a ruling on February 14 to secure a temporary measure prohibiting the alienation and encumbrance of Villa Dubrovnik’s properties. With the achieved settlement, the Commercial Court issued a ruling to delete the encumbrances on Villa Dubrovnik’s properties.

As announced on the Zagreb Stock Exchange, Villa Dubrovnik emphasizes that the successful resolution of the dispute is part of a comprehensive settlement related to the non-operational land in Sveti Jakov, totaling 6,675 square meters, confirmed to be owned by the Dubrovnik tourism company, while Europrojekt was refunded the deposit amounting to one million euros.

Additionally, the announcement states that Villa Dubrovnik, through the exchange and sale of smaller parts of the properties with the owners of neighboring properties (who are in a partnership with Europrojekt and thus part of the broader settlement), has achieved the required minimum area necessary for the development of the planned project of smaller individual luxury accommodation units on all parcels owned by the Company, which had not been the case previously. The purchase and exchange contracts for the properties were concluded on the condition that the holders of pre-emption rights (the city or municipality in relation to the county and the City of Zagreb, and then the Republic of Croatia) would not exercise rights under Article 37 of the Law on the Protection and Preservation of Cultural Goods, which is a terminating condition in the contracts for the exchange and sale of properties, but not in the settlement itself, which is final.

In Ownership of Pension Funds

Villa Dubrovnik has thus, along with resolving property-legal relations, achieved the requested structuring of land parcels necessary for the planned development of its own project on the same land.

By the way, the luxury hotel Villa Dubrovnik was owned until two years ago by the Doğuş Group of Turkish billionaire Ferit Şahenk as part of the luxury hotel brand Mytha Anthology. The Doğuş Group completely reconstructed it, after which the hotel opened in 2011 as a boutique hotel with 5 stars and 56 luxury rooms.

That same year, eight pension funds (ERSTE Plavi mandatory pension fund category A, ERSTE Plavi mandatory pension fund category B, Expert voluntary pension fund, Closed voluntary road pension fund, Erste closed voluntary pension fund, Nestle closed voluntary pension fund, Police closed voluntary pension fund, and Post closed voluntary pension fund) acquired a majority stake of 89.6 percent in Villa Dubrovnik by signing a purchase agreement with the then majority owner, the Doğuş Group.

As reported by the portal Dubrovački vjesnik, actors and other deep-pocketed guests stay at this elite hotel, and an overnight stay there reportedly costs up to eight thousand euros.