February 17, 2022 - The new Apfel Center in Makarska will be completed in October and cover 14,000 square meters, focusing on culture, sports, and health. 

After the Makarska company "Apfel," owned by entrepreneur Mijo Pašalić, built a residential building with 13 apartments for 16 of its employees last year in Makarska, and a house in Banja for the Boltužić family, now it's time for a project of great importance for Makarska and its Riviera, reports Slobodna Dalmacija.

Namely, the Apfel cultural and sports center will cost 80 million kuna, will employ 30 people, and is located at the eastern entrance to the city, more precisely at Volicija. The center, whose construction began two years ago and which employs about 100 contractors, will be completed in October and will cover 14,000 square meters and have 100 parking spaces.

The project that will unite culture, sports, and health was developed by the company "Lukić projekt" and was publicly presented by the leader Matko Pašalić.

As he explained, at the entrance to the Center, there will be a Mediterranean garden of 3500 m2 with three gazebos and a barbecue, in which fellow citizens will be able to organize various celebrations and gatherings. There will also be a children's park, a field with artificial grass for indoor soccer, and a hard surface tennis court.

In 4300 m2 of the inner part, there will be a parquet playground, a court with artificial grass, and behind it a court for padel tennis, a children's playroom, while in the middle of the Center there will be a cafe and pizzeria with indoor and outdoor terraces and a children's park.

On the 1st floor of the Apfel Center, there will be three fitness halls and gyms equipped to the latest standards, which will satisfy both recreational and professional athletes, all with service facilities, and in the eastern part a multimedia hall with 360 cascading seats for concerts, congresses, plays, and performances. However, negotiations are still underway with the City to have a cinema in the hall.

On the 2nd floor, there will be a health section - a polyclinic and office space, with Apfel negotiating with top specialist doctors who would come to Makarska once a week and perform specialist examinations so that locals do not have to go to Split for wider health care. 

Furthermore, upstairs there will be an office of nutritionists and physiotherapists, and there will be places for all entrepreneurs, crafts, and associations. As Pašalić said, all sports facilities are for amateur athletes and fellow recreational citizens.

Since its founding in 1996, Apfel has been actively involved in the life of the wider community, not only as an observer but also as an active generator of public events. The company's business plan has always included promoting cultural and sports content in society, whether through sponsorship or the organization of events. 

"As a natural continuation of participation in the sports and cultural life of the Makarska Riviera, the Pašalić family came up with the idea of a Sports and Cultural Center that would unite public events that enrich everyday life in one place. In the Apfel cultural and sports center project, we were supported by both the current and former authorities. The idea of building the center arose after long thought about what our city lacks, so we started with sports fields and continued with everything else. I am convinced that the Center will have good attendance and positive response among our fellow citizens," said Pašalić, adding that part of the program is designed as a year-round and part as a seasonal.

The year-round plan of activities includes seminars and congresses, hosting performances and concerts, cinema screenings, basic and specialist health services, daily fitness programs, children's birthday celebrations, a sports school for the youngest, team sports in indoor and outdoor sports fields, a team-building organization for companies, children's playroom, use of gazebos with barbecue, and many other facilities, while the periodical programs include the Festival of Satire, Days of Slavonia, children's competitions in various sports and many other events that will accompany the seasonal calendar.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.

March the 22nd, 2021 - Croatian entrepreneur Mijo Pasalic, best known as being the owner of the successful company Apfel, has built apartments for his employees in Makarska.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Croatian entrepreneur Mijo Pasalic, the owner of the Apfel company, has constructed two apartment buildings in the coastal Dalmatian town of Makarska with apartments that were purchased at half price by his workers who hadn't managed to get their housing issues resolved and until recently were tenants in unenviable situations. He thus resolved a very significant existential issue for thirteen of his company's employees.

Given that we haven't heard of a similar case in more than thirty years of the existence of independent Croatia, and we don't know whether or not anything similar was ever done by any other employer in the area, Vecernji list went down to Makarska to talk to Croatian entrepreneur Mijo Pasalic and his son Matko, the CEO of Apfel.

''On that day we were celebrating 25 years of Apfel's existence. This is a family business, and all of us, the whole family, have a rule of conduct when it comes to doing business, and that is to give back a lot to the local community, ie the areas of Makarska and the Makarska Riviera. This is where we function, this is where we make the biggest profit and we think it's just normal to give back a part of it. I think that's how it should work and, to be honest, it's actually how we like it to be,'' explained Mijo Pasalic, who has helped a lot in public life in Makarska through various associations, either in sports, culture, or through various humanitarian actions.

However, they decided to take a step forward and, despite the crisis year that is behind us all and the uncertain future, specifically help their workers in resolving the main existential, housing issue that they could not resolve on their own.

''Makarska is very expensive to live in and many people, despite what they do, can't solve their housing issues if their parents weren't the ones to have previously solved it. We came up with the idea to help our workers out by building two apartment buildings and making the price acceptable to them. One square metre in our apartments cost us around 1450 euros, the land alone cost us 250 euros per square mere, and a square metre of an apartment will cost our workers a lot less: from 650 to 950 euros,'' said Mijo Pasalic, who is very happy that now thirteen families of his workers resolved their housing issues.

They have already signed contracts and have since become the owners of the 60-square-metre apartments in the two new buildings constructed by Croatian entrepreneur Mijo Pasalic.

For more on Croatian entrepreneurs and Croatian companies, follow our business section.

All HORECA conference participants agreed that 2016 marked a very successful tourist season, with Croats drinking a record amount of coffee, beer and wine. The second HORECA conference was held in Opatija this weekend.