Cimos building

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The Cimos building is an abandoned, yet undemolished building in Zagreb, Croatia, situated on the intersection between Ljubljana avenue and Hrvatski sokol street in the Staglišće neighbourhood. The name Cimos comes from a Slovenian enterprise that represented Citroën in the former Yugoslavia, which wanted to create an exhibition hall in the building. Currently, the building is used as a meeting place for local youth.

[edit] History

Construction on Cimos building began in 1988, when Cimos bought 7700 m² from the city. Construction work commenced in a partnership with the construction company Gradis, also from Slovenia. Construction work was soon terminated because of the Yugoslav wars during which Slovenia and Croatia became politically independent of one another. Soon Gradis and Cimos canceled their contract; Gradis went bankrupt and Cimos quit the construction project altogether. In the next decade the building was left to deteriorate and in a couple of years all the windows had either been broken or stolen, as had other construction material.

Cimos couldn't sell its property until 2001 when Croatia and Slovenia signed an agreement that regulated the real-estate market between them. That same year Cimos sold the building to another company, Berny Commerce, based in Zagreb. Berny Commerce was signed as the new owner in the land-registry. However, Cimos withheld from Commerce the information that Gradis had sold its share of the building to the Cefting Company, a Slovenian company based in Brežice, and to some other, less important, Slovenian business people.

Just when Bernny Commerce started to renovate the building in 2002, Cefting, Gradis and the smaller shareholders sued Bernny Commerce to enforce their rights to the property. Because of the on-going litigation, the banks denied Berny Commerce credit necessary for renovating the building. At the end of 2005, Bernny Commerce with the smaller shareholders, and Cefting Company ceased to exist.

In the meantime, Croatian mobile service provider T-Hrvatski Telekom illegally installed a signal repeater on top of the building. A court's final decision in that matter is expected towards the end of spring, 2006.