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The idea to build up an aquapark in the Dalmatian region rose up seven years ago. The touristic importance and traffic of this region is high, on the other hand additional entertainment facilities are needed, the range of touristic attractions can be increased on a profitable way. For these reasons the management of Primatum Investment Fund made its decision to fund the Margaritum firm and to purchase the necessary land for a future aquapark near to the highway at Dugopolje. Margaritum d.o.o is the owner (100 percent) of the construction spot. This spot is about 15 km from Split center. Public utility services (water and electricity) have been secured since 2009. New natural gas pipeline will be built in this year. In spite of these positive developments and the invested huge amount of money the former management of the Margaritum was not able to start the construction works. For that reason the Primatum Fund - to speed up the project, to avoid further losses in time and costs - appointed a new Margaritum management in 1st of July, 2011.

About the region

The Margaritum Aquapark project is located in Split-Dugopolje, which is a community in the Split-Dalmatia County about 15 km inlands from Split. The community was formed only in 1997 when it seceded from the Klis community. The population is around 3,000; 2,600 of them in Dugopolje itself. In recent years the community made some smart moves attracting the investments and building small modern factories, and is therefore among the most prosperous communities in the Dalmatian inlands, otherwise quite poor regions. The modern highway Zagreb-Split passed though this region making Dugopolje and important crossroads for the way towards Dubrovnik and South.

The County of Split and Dalmatia is situated in middle Dalmatia. Split, the second largest city in Croatia is the economic, administrative, educational, sport and tourist center of Split Dalmatia County (Middle Dalmatia), traffic connection to Croatian islands, pearls of Adriatic like Hvar, Vis, Brac and Solta. Split Dalmatia County can be seen defined in tourist offers as Dalmatia, Dalmatia coast and Dalmatia islands and as Riviera Trogir, Riviera Kastela, Riviera Split and Riviera Makarska.

Split is an important transport center for Dalmatia and the wider region. In addition to the Zagreb-Split freeway (A1), all the road traffic along the Adriatic coast on the route Zadar-Dubrovnik flows through the city. The Airport is the second largest in Croatia in terms of passenger numbers, with year-round services to Zagreb, London, Frankfurt and the Cologne Bonn Airport in Germany, as well as heavy tourist traffic in the summer.

The Split passenger seaport is the third busiest port in the Mediterrean, with daily coastal routes to Rijeka, Dubrovnik and Ancona in Italy. During the summer season Split is connected with other Italian cities as well, such as Pescara. Most of the central Dalmatian islands are only reachable via the Split harbor. This includes the islands of Brac, Hvar, as well as the more distant Vis, Korcula and Lastovo.

Main Project elements

The whole project will be realized in four phases as follows:

According to the construction plans an outdoor Aquapark without accommodation facilities is planned to be constructed on the plots of some 12 ha area in Phase 1. In this first construction phase the main building with the main entrance, changing rooms, sanitary blocks and a restaurant with terrace, as well as all the pools, slides and other water amusement facilities, stand alone kiosks and sanitary blocks and a central snack bar will be constructed. It means that the Aquapark can be opened for the visitors.

Phase 2 contains the upper floors of the main building’s south-western wing, which is the planned
hotter part of the project and the Adventure Park, which is planned to the south-eastern part of the
development site.

Phase 3 contains an extension of the plot of the Aquapark to North-East.

Phase 4 contains the construction of the Aquarium which is planned to be the South-Eastern wing of the main building furthermore the landscaping works on the rest (northern corner) of the development area.

Site/phases	Area (m²)
phase 1	96 293
phase 2	5 954
phase 3	3 767
phase 4	3 899
Top.No. 1914/145	119 913

The development will offer the following pools, amusement facilities and attractions

Pools	Water surface (m²)	Average Depth (m)	Pools volume (m3)
1 Wave pool	1 541,89	0,9	1395,86
2 Swimming pool	155,72	0,95	779,79
3 Lazy river	2 263,36	1	2196,88
4 Multiaction pool	2 435,65	0,6	1438
5 Splash pool	1 147,48	1,2	181,18
6 Splash pool	2 146,41	1,2	184,82
7 Entry lake	175,31	0,2	34,79
8 Navigable lake	921,58	0,8	726,17
9 Night club pool	224,53	1	224,59
10 Splash pool	383,25	1,2	102,36
11 Hydrotherapy pool	200,97	0,9	180,87
Declorification pool	308,06	(a technology need will be	on the site of phase 2)

Slides	Slides Height (m)	Length (m)	Slope (%)
1 Compact slide 1 (600x900mm)	0,75	7,41	10,12
2 Compact slide 2 (600x900mm)	2,7	21,38	12,63
3 Mini slide 1 (690mm)	1	4,51	22,17
4 Mini slide 2 (690mm)	1	4,51	22,17
5 Ramp slide (2000mm)	1,2	4,35	27,59
6 Hydrotube (Ø900mm)	2,5	9,5	26,32
7 Compact slide 3 (600x900mm)	1,33	11,38	11,69
8 Kamikaze (1000mm)	30	80	37,5
9 Freefall (1000mm)	30	80	37,5
10 Crazy river (1400mm)	12	117,7	10,2
11 Giant slide (1000mm)	12	94,91	12,64
12 Black hole(Ø1400mm)	12	118,94	10,09
13 Tornado (Ø1400mm)	14,51	1	1451
14 Multi slide (6x870mm)	14	46,89	29,86
15 Big hole (Ø2000mm)	14	140	10

no.	Games & attractions	Quantity
1	Interactive game	1
2	Ring game	2
3	Dry game - strength	2
4	Turtle	2
5	Bird	2
6	Big waterfall	2
7	Medium waterfall	5
8	Water cannons	5
9	Jacuzzi	3
10	Hydromassage loungers	4

Sport fields	Surface (m²)
Beach volleyball	137
Multifunction sport field	1 714

Regulations, permits

The building licensing and permitting procedures are in progress according to the Croatian law. The project plans are permitted and valid right now. In spite of this fact the new management of the Margaritum decided last year to modify the concept and few elements of the future AQP. The modified plans are ready and the permitting procedure will be ended in July, 2012.

All the necessary public utilities (water, drainage, electricity and natural gas) are secured.

Analysis of the Aquapark market

Despite of the obvious need and profitability of operating an aqua park in a priority touristic area, there is no operating aqua park in Croatia. Aquapark Dalmacija as a touristic attraction will contribute to increase the service level for the guests visiting this region.

An aqua/water park is an amusement park that features water play areas, such as water slides, splash pads, spray grounds (water playgrounds), lazy rivers, or other recreational bathing environments. Water parks, in more current states of development, may also be equipped with some type of artificial surfing or body-boarding environment such as a wave pool or a Flow River.

Country	City/Location	Name	Opening period (d.m-d.m)	Max. daily capacity (p)	Opening year
Hungary	Zalaegerszeg	Aquacity	15.06-31.08	4500	2002
Hungary	Mogyoród	Aquaréna	23.05-30.09	4500	2003
Hungary	Balatonfüred	Annagora Aquapark	27.05-31.08	3500	2006
Hungary	Orfű	Orfűi Aquapark	21.05-30.09	3000	2010
Italy Lake	Garda	Canevaworld-Aquaparadise	10.05-21.09	5000	2003
Bulgaria	Golden Sands	Aquapolis	20.05-30.09	3000	2004
Cyprus	Paphos	AphroditeWaterpark	01.05-31.10	1350	2000
Cyprus	Limassol	FasouriWatermania	01.05-31.10	3000	2003
Turkey	Kusadasi	Adaland	01.05-05.10	2500	1999
Turkey	Alanya	Side Water Planet Aquapark	01.04-30.09	1500	2000
Spain	Mallorca	Aqualand El Arenal	12.05-26.09	5000	1998

Calculations

We performed our calculations in Euro. We took into account the consumer inflation for the forecasting of incomes on the basis of the latest forecasts (April 2011) of The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. (Dow Jones & Reuters). Regarding implementation costs we did not calculate with inflation since we assume the project can be implemented within a year and thus we calculated with current price contracts regarding construction works. We determined operational costs (adjusted with consumer inflation) in the percentage of the incomes. Therefore we did not calculate with separate (producers’) inflation in case of the income numbers. On the basis of Bloomberg data the 10 years Croatian reference yield is currently around 6.0 – 6.1%. On the basis of careful estimation we applied a discount rate of 11.5% in our calculations taking into account a mark-up for the country and regional risk of 2-2% and the industry risk of 1.5%.

All values and numbers were provided by PricewaterhouseCoopers