The effects of crisis: contractors leave Centar Cvjetni

Pepe Jeans, coffee bar Mint, the restaurant Living room, Sony, bookshop – this is the list of tenants who closed their shops in Centar Cvjetni. And this list is going to become longer as it seems now.

Critical area – minus one floor

The reason is that there are less and less customers except in H&M store plus the expensive costs of renting and the head people who don’t want to negotiate. So the shops have to leave the premises located in the busiest Zagreb square. The latest example is closing of dm shop which has the notice of the State inspectorate on its door. The reason for closing is not having a permit for minimal technical conditions for work, as Tanja Horvat, the manager of Cvjetni Center, explains. But, as the people from management say, dm will get the new place in -1 floor, and the new contractors will also come. It seems that this -1 area is the most critical because the majority of contractors left it. One of them is Alen Macinic who is the former Big Brother reality show star and the owner of the coffee bar Mint which is closed at the moment.

- When I signed the contract, they said that the rent is 40 thousand HRK, but when we entered the place and invested in its decoration, the rent was 24 thousand HRK higher. The explanation was that we have to pay 8 thousand extra for the storage area of 34 square meters, although we needed only 10 square meters. We also had to pay for the bar area outdoors and the cost was 12 thousand HRK – Macinic says bitterly.

He was very enthusiastic at the beginning because he managed to open the café at the fantastic spot, but this feeling was soon replaced by a lot of worries. He had to pay for the rent, for the personnel and this was very hard.

A law suit against Horvatincic

- We were told we would have the area for smoking plus heating in the area in front of the coffee bar. And what happened? One week after the beginning the smoking was banned, the heating didn’t work for months, so no one wanted to sit outside. They didn’t want to decrease the rent. They asked me why I entered the premises at all if I didn’t have additional money in case of losses – Macinic says.

Therefore, he closed the place after only six months.

- It is crazy, people are protesting, and the Hoto group management doesn’t care. The contractors cannot cope because there are no customers – Alen Macinic is upset. He also announced a law suit against Tomo Horvatincic for the compensation of the business loss.

Dm – drogerie markt d.o.o. and Hoto grupa d.o.o. continue with their business. The only thing that will change is the location of dm shop within the Cvjetni Center. A new contract will be signed between them so that dm – drogerie markt d.o.o. will get new position at -1 level – as the manager of Cvjetni Center Tanja Horvat explains.