This year marks exactly 20 years since the first retail store opened its doors in today’s BTC City Ljubljana. With the transformation of the economic centre in 1990 the warehouse capacities of the company Blagovno Transportni Center became too big for the needs of the economy, which meant that 50.000 square metres of areas became available for use. BTC started with total transformation of its economic activity and quickly vacated their warehouse storage areas and started with intensive reorganization for the needs of private storage areas and stores. In 1990 the company signed lease contracts with 11 leaseholders, who based their economic activity on retail stores and with 46 leaseholders, who used their storage areas as discount warehouses. That marked the new era in the history of the company, which last year celebrated 55 years of its existence.
First stores were located on the ground floors of today’s halls A, D and E and in halls 4 and 8. In the search of finding and acknowledging some business freedom, the company first decided on changing its name and started with the transformation into a joint-stock company, which became responsible for choosing new, profitable, compatible and competitive programs and business ventures.
Today visitors to BTC City can shop in more than 450 shops in one place, the supply of which extends from food products, cosmetics, clothes to interior equipment. BTC City Ljubljana is the biggest European business, shopping, recreative-entertainment and cultural centre, which is yearly visited by 21 million people from Slovenia and abroad. The entire area of BTC City amounts to 475.000 square metres, with the core of the business centre comprising 3.000 companies from Slovenia and abroad, which are in synergy with shopping, recreative-entertainment and cultural contents. BTC City is today a bustling city with an interesting contemporary architecture, a work of more than 40 domestic and foreign architects and urban planners. BTC City is a real city, as shown by 9 new streets and 2 squares, which are named after countries and capital cities, which have in greatest extent marked the business centre, Europe and the whole world.
The dynamic development of BTC City, encouraged by constant aspiration for supplementation and enrichment of current offers, has alongside the rise in number of visitors contributed to the decision on the realization of new projects with quality architecture. One such example is the construction of the business skyscraper “Crystal Palace”, which BTC is building in the western part of the BTC area between hall A and the current business skyscraper. On 24th September 2010 the construction of the Crystal palace reached its highest point, namely 89 metres, which makes it the tallest building in Slovenia. The Crystal palace, in which owners and leaseholders will be able to move in as of June 2011, will be a contemporary and energetically economical building as well as a solar power plant with 100kWp power.
Additional information:
Maja Oven, director of Marketing and Public Relations
- phone: 01/585 13 15
- e-mail: maja.oven@btc.si
