Aqua park construction postponed again - City of Nis sets new deadline for Italian-Serbian investor to pay EUR 1 million municipal taxes

Nis Mayor Milos Simonovic has given the Serbian-Italian consortium Italnis Group, which acquired the land for the construction of "the biggest aqua park in the Balkans," an additional four months to conclude an agreement with the City Development Directorate and pay the municipal fees amounting to EUR 1 million. The deadline extension has been approved at the investor's request, who explained that the extension had not been asked because of financial troubles, but for technical reasons, Danas daily learns.

An agreement between Nis and the consortium Italnis, which consists of Italian companies Stefania Group, Locatelli and Trusardi and Nis-based Naissus, was concluded in March 2011. As it was announced on that occasion, the sports and business complex Fantazija, which will comprise an aqua park, will span 5.5 hectares. The value of this whole investment is EUR 120 million.

As Head of the Property Administration Ljubisa Janic explained yesterday, he and Mayor Simonovic thought that a deadline extension of 120 days "is the best solution that could benefit the city much more" than the agreement termination.

- If we terminated the agreement, we would have to return EUR 1.1 million paid by the investor for the land - said Janic.