The mega-project, worth 147 million euros, envisages the construction of the hall with 13,500 seats and a car garage with 1,500 places at the Lora area in this biggest Croatian Adriatic city.
According to Split Mayor Ivan Kuret, the facilities will occupy 135,000 square metres with commercial premises accounting for 63,000 square metres.
The sport arena will be constructed according to the private-public partnership model by a consortium consisting of three Croatian companies: Konstruktor, IGH and Dalekovod.
In a period of 30 years, the city authorities are expected to pay a monthly rental fee of 2.5 million kuna and after that period the city will take the ownership of the facilities.
The construction of the handball hall and the parking lot is to be over until 15 December 2008, and other objects should be constructed until 2010.
The city council immediately sent its decision to the government to consider and okay it at its session set for Thursday.
After that, City of Split and the consortium can sign a contract regulating the Lora hall construction, Mayor Kuret said.
Construction works on Zagreb Arena, a multipurpose sports hall that will be another venue for the handball championships began on 20 July. The EUR 87 million hall, to be built by the Ingra-TriGranit consortium, will be completed in 15 months. The first event it will host will be the 2009 World Handball Championship. It will hold up to 25,000 visitors.