December the 12th, 2022 - Bakar's Kukuljanovo industrial zone spans approximately 500 hectares and is by far the largest and best-equipped zone of its kind in all of Croatia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, with the final complete infrastructural arrangement of this part of the Kukuljanovo industrial zone, including the accompanying newly asphalted roads and public lighting, the zone in every part of it is set to become of equal quality and attractive, including for potential new investors.

Bakar's Kukuljanovo industrial zone, spanning the aforementioned area of about 500 hectares, i.e. five million square metres, is the largest and, as they say, the most well-equipped such zone in all of Croatia. The proximity of the Port of Rijeka and the position on the motorway to the south, but even more significantly towards Zagreb and the whole of Central and Eastern Europe, are certainly this impressive zone's trump cards.

In the immediate vicinity of Kukuljanovo lies Rijeka Airport on the island of Krk, and although there has been an enormous amount of interest among entrepreneurs and business owners in working in and around this area for years, there are still around 200 hectares sitting entirely vacant in IZ Bakar, which are constantly being arranged and prepared for new tenants. Currently, more than 200 business entities with around 4,500 employees have positioned themselves on the Kukuljanovo industrial zone. There is also a free customs zone with an area of 100 hectares in this area.

The price of the land, which is being sold as a plateau at a public tender, ranges from 55 to 100 euros per square metre. The zone is constantly expanding. Just last year around 28,400 square metres of space were bought, and for this year the plan to buy another 30,000 square metres worth 5.8 million kuna in total. Revenues throughout 2022 are planned at the level of 17 million kuna, which is only 54% of the realisation from the record year of 2021.

Spatially speaking, the zone is divided into its western part, which is mostly built up, and the eastern, significantly less developed part, which is located in the wider circle of the Zlanjevo lagoon. These two spatial areas of the Kukuljanovo industrial zone are crossed by the local road called 58110, which connects the village of Kukuljanovo with the Municipality of Cavle. The existing roads in the eastern part of the zone (ex R 29/I) haven't yet been completely finished with the final wearing layer of asphalt and a suitable sidewalk.

Therefore, the City of Bakar itself, based on the contract for the maintenance of ungraded roads, carried out the ''revamp'' of the existing bearing layer of the pavement, the rehabilitation of rainwater drainage covers, the reconstruction of all drains, the replacement of all road and park curbs, the installation of the final asphalt layer of the pavement and the rehabilitation of asphalt on the pavements. Tactile panels have been installed along the pavements to make it easier for blind and visually impaired people to find their way around. The total value of the works stood at a massive 4.03 million kuna, and the contractor was Ceste Rijeka (Rijeka Roads). The length of the renovated pavement is 2,600 metres.

Perhaps the most famous ''name'' that opened a business premises on the Kukuljanovo industrial zone this year is Hrvatska posta (Croatian post), which opened a new logistics and distribution centre worth 60 million kuna back during the middle of March, which employs around 300 employee. The largest individual space in the zone is held by the Port of Rijeka with the Skrljevo Terminal, which is a back-end multipurpose logistics centre intended for the handling and storage of containers, general and bulk cargo, and even wood. It spans a total area of 440,000 square metres, of which 55,000 square metres are confined warehouses. The terminal has the status of a free customs zone.

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