BTC City

BTC City highlighted (top right) on a map of Ljubljana.

BTC City is a shopping mall, sports, entertainment and business area in Ljubljana, Slovenia, with more than 500 shops. Most of the shops are located on official address Šmartinska cesta 152, Ljubljana.

History

In 1954, a company named Centralna skladišča (Central Warehouses) was founded with a founding contract. Central Warehouses expanded their operations by starting to carry out the warehousing activities also for other companies, which were not among the co-founders of the company. Due to the expansion of the activity and the extent of operations, the company changed its name to Javna skladišča (Public Warehouses). In 1975, the company became the largest goods and transport centre in former Yugoslavia. In the same year, Javna skladišča changed its name to Blagovno Transportni Center Ljubljana (Ljubljana Goods and Transport Centre, BTC). 1990 presents a turning point for BTC. In search and confirmation of the entrepreneurial freedom, the company decided to change its name to Blagovno Trgovinski Center (Goods and Shopping Centre) and the company, which, up to that point, managed warehousing space, transformed itself to a public limited company in 1990, becoming responsible for the selection of new, profitable, compatible and competitive programmes and business contents, and suitable infrastructure as well. First individual stores started opening. In 1993, when the management of the company was taken over by Jože Mermal, the empty warehousing facilities began to acquire a new, more attractive image, and the first shops formed in the renovated Hall A. In 1994, the company stocks were quoted on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange. In 1997, the public limited company BTC became an international capital company, as its shares were the listed at the London Stock Exchange as shares of the first Slovenian company. Soon afterwards, the Frankfurt and Munich Stock Exchanges followed.[1]

Facilities

BTC City has a total gross area of more than 250,000 m2, making it one of the largest shopping and entertainment complexes in Europe. It includes a main shopping mall called CityPark, 16 smaller shopping malls, a multiplex with twelve screens, the recently opened Plaza Hotel Ljubljana, a market, a mini golf course, a waterpark with a spa center and an entertainment center with a casino, bowling, 3D cinema as well as two high rise office buildings. One of these, the Crystal Palace, is the tallest building in Slovenia.

A panoramic image of BTC City from the north.

CityPark

It is the main shopping mall with more than 150 shops and 15 bars and restaurants (including the only Burger King in Slovenia). It was built in three phases from 2002 to 2010. Major anchors include: Adidas, H&M, Interspar, K&0, Marks&Spencer, NewYorker.

Kolosej

It is a multiplex that was open in 2001. It has got twelve screens with capacity of viewers from 140 to 600. Inside of the multiplex there are also an entertainment section with billiards and other games, two restaurants and McDonald's, three bars, a bookshop and two fashion shops.


References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to BTC City.
  1. ↑ "History of BTC City". Retrieved 2011-11-13.

External links

Coordinates: 46°3′56.19″N 14°32′39.36″E / 46.0656083°N 14.5442667°E