ROBERT SEVER CELEBRITYJI - DalCasa

“Joker” zapošljava oko 1000 ljudi / “Joker” employes
about 1000 people
The New Structure of Movement in the City
At the opening of the first shopping centre in Split, we
found engineer Jerko Rošin, the Government’s urbanism
advisor, and he greeted this initiative and praised the
work of his colleague, engineer Jaramaz.
- The space is representative, created in functional manner
and is a completely Croatian product with funds
from Split invested in it, which is more than praiseworthy.
I predict the change in the movement structure itself
because this will result in the removal of the focal point
towards the north, which will lead in the more balanced
distribution of traffic within the city. Although interest is
bound to drop over time, I predict that this will result in a
nice and permanent re-distribution in the northern part
of the peninsula that was made impossible by the shipyard
up until now.
Unlike his Split colleagues, architect Nenad Fabijanić
isn’t overly enthused about the city’s new facility.
- “Joker” is pretty near the centre, which is bound to lead
to a more intense concentration of traffic, and as far as I
know, we could witness some problems with the parking
lot, especially close to the holidays when the “shopping
fever” suddenly increases. Such centres usually sacrifice
their original proportions for as big a “cubature” as possi-
Investments
ble, which often results in buildings with many redundant
square metres that need to find their purpose. It’s best
to build these types of centres out of the city because
it is then easier to accomplish the original idea, as well
as achieve the comfort and the large parking lot, which
is essential for these projects – says architect Fabijanić,
completing his commentary with an amusing sentence:
“It’s not possible to put a fat foot into a small shoe.”
The Centres’ Boom Brings a Variety of
Options and Stiff Competition
If we compare “Joker” to the other larger centres
in Croatia, such as:
- Tower Centre in Rijeka, with 140.000 square metres,
1100 employees, with 150 million euros of value,
2150 parking spaces, seven overground floors,
a fifteen-floor business tower,
- City Centre One in Zagreb, with 100 million euros
of value, 61.000 square metres, 1700 parking
spaces, 1200 employees, 85 stores, coffee shops,
restaurants,
- King Cross in Zagreb, with 150 million euros of value,
150 square metres, 1800 parking spaces, 1000
employees, 95 stores, coffee shops, restaurants,
- Avenue Mall in Zagreb, with 70 million euros of
value, 79.000 square metres, 800 employees, 750
parking spaces, 130 stores, coffee shops, restaurants,
cinema halls,
then we can place the business-shopping centre
in Split in the mid-large group of centres, along
with City Centre Varaždin, City Gallery in Zadar
and Shopping City Zagreb Centre. It has a larger
variety of features than the majority of centres,
which predominantly offer the “classical treatment”
of stores, coffee shops and restaurants.
This picture could soon receive some changes because,
since this year’s May, the Ministry of Economy,
Labour and Entrepreneurship has received
116 requests, and 88 of them were answered in
confirmative manner for constructing shopping
centres larger than 3000 square metres.
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