The vast area, mostly owned by the City of Zagreb, seems to be waiting for a better fate, like a student sitting in the back row of a classroom.
Currently, there are plans to use part of the Gredelj space, on the other side near Paromlin, as a parking lot while the construction of the City Library and the Paromlin Social and Cultural Center is underway.
It is a sad fate for what is potentially the best location in Zagreb, a city that is suffocating from new residential developments that are often squeezed into many places where they shouldn’t be, while here lies a vacant area with immense potential and opportunities for controlled spatial development.
The fact that nothing serious is planned for Gredelj in the near future is evidenced by the lack of a multidisciplinary team or office dedicated to this space and, for starters, resolving the remaining property and legal issues related to this zone.
Just as it is done in former industrial areas and industrial architecture elsewhere, these are all well-known recipes. Although the neighboring Paromlin area is being developed, which is probably the city government's first step in arranging this part of the city, if they do not start dealing with the basic issues of resolving Gredelj in time, that project cannot simply be launched as a "continuation" of Paromlin.
Most of Gredelj is owned by the City of Zagreb, but part of the area is owned by Croatian Railways. For instance, in the vicinity of the mentioned new building, the parcels belong to the Railway Transport Company. All of this should be consolidated as a starting point. In various studies that have addressed this area, the development of residential and office zones, commercial facilities, buildings for culture, public spaces, parks and promenades, eco-zones, traffic solutions... have all been considered. Last year, the City of Zagreb first announced an architectural competition for this area, even though numerous studies that already exist are sufficient as a basis for the development of this zone, not as final solutions.