The state has decided to discontinue talks with the Pula hotel group Arena Hospitality Group, the former Arenaturist, about the sale of Riviera Hotel in Pula city center, reports Jutarnji List on November 26, 2018.

The Riviera Hotel in Pula is located in a beautiful old Austro-Hungarian building from early 20th century and was run for years by the largest Pula hotel company. The hotel, as it does every year, closed in mid-October, but the question is whether it will open its doors ahead of the next tourist season. For a very long time, nothing has been invested in the hotel precisely because of unresolved ownership issues, so the luxury facility is officially categorized as just a guest house.

According to Minister of State Property Goran Marić, his ministry has not managed to come to an agreement with the hotel group. “Unfortunately, we have failed to agree. The State Property Act explicitly defines how to deal with such property. Unfortunately, the Arenaturist administration has approached the process as negotiations, and the State Property Ministry is unable to negotiate. They do not understand that there can be no agreement based on business negotiations. We do not have the possibility to negotiate, and they do not understand it or do not want to understand it,” Marić said.

Therefore, his ministry has filed a request with the State Attorney's Office for the collection of all receivables that did not pass the statute of limitations for the use of the hotel and for its return to the state.

“When the State Attorney's Office solves this on behalf of the state, we will announce a public tender for sale, and they can apply,” Marić explained. He could not say when that would happen.

“I can estimate something that is not within the competence of the State Property Ministry. When the actions of the State Attorney's Office and courts will be done, the answer to this is never known in Croatia,” Marić pointed out honestly.

Apparently, the Riviera Hotel in Pula was being sold for about 30 million kuna, and the Arena Hospitality Group had big plans for it and wanted to resolve the ownership issues for a long time. The company did not want to comment on the latest turn of events.

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Translated from Jutarnji List (repoted by Barbara Ban).

Hotel Riviera in Pula was once a stunning neo-baroque hotel where royal families and movie stars would often stay overnight, today it an outdated and poorly managed guesthouse with only two stars.

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