Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner wants to build a luxury hotel complex on the site. The project is controversial in Serbia for historical reasons – the army headquarters was destroyed in NATO air strikes on Belgrade in 1999 during the Kosovo War. In 2005, the remains of the building, built in 1965, were declared a cultural monument by the Serbian government. This classification was lifted last year – a short time later, Kushner’s Miami-based investment firm Affinity Partners signed a 99-year lease.
The Affinity Partners project was suspended in May. The public prosecutor’s office is investigating the suspicion that documents were falsified in order to be able to revoke the monument protection for the site. “The government has passed a special law to legalize their crime,” student Valentina Moravcevic told the N1 television channel on Tuesday on the sidelines of the demonstration: “We will not allow this. We are here today to warn you and show that our history and our cultural heritage are important to us.”
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic defended the “extraordinary” project. “We are giving the land and they are investing at least 650 million euros, a huge investment for our country,” he told the pro-government channel Pink TV. It is not a sale, but a long-term lease, emphasized Vucic. “This will increase the value of everything in Belgrade and attract even more tourists,” he added. The project will “immediately” be worth more than one billion euros.
Vucic had already personally received Kushner in Belgrade several times. Affinity Partners’ partner in the construction project is the real estate developer Eagle Hills from the United Arab Emirates. Since 2015, he has been involved in a huge project to redevelop the riparian areas on the Sawa tributary of the Danube, which has been heavily criticized by the capital’s residents and the Serbian opposition.
