According to the Serbian Economist, the investment company of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, Affinity Partners, has withdrawn from the project to build a hotel and business complex on the site of the former building of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army in the center of Belgrade.
According to Radio Liberty (Balkan service), the company has withdrawn its application for the project, which envisioned the construction of a luxury complex on the site of the General Staff buildings destroyed during NATO bombing raids in 1999.
According to a spokesman for Affinity Partners, the decision was made “out of respect for the citizens of Serbia and Belgrade,” as large projects “should unite, not divide” society.
The announcement of the company’s withdrawal from the project came against the background of the fact that on the same day, the Serbian Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime filed an indictment against Culture Minister Nikola Selakovic and a number of officials. They are accused of abuse of power and falsification of documentation when the General Staff complex was stripped of its status of protected cultural heritage, which opened the way for commercial development of the site.
Kushner’s project during the year caused mass protests of the opposition, student and urban protection initiatives, which insisted on the preservation and restoration of the complex as an important monument of modernist architecture and a memorial site associated with the victims of the 1999 bombings. Activists called the investor’s rejection an “important victory,” but warned that the General Staff remains at risk of status changes and possible demolition in favor of other development projects.
The Serbian government and presidential administration had not commented on the information about Affinity Partners’ withdrawal from the project at the time of publication of the Radio Liberty piece.
Affinity Partners is a private investment company of Jared Kushner, created after his departure from Donald Trump’s administration and working with the capital of Middle Eastern and other institutional investors. In Serbia, the redevelopment project of the General Staff complex was realized through affiliated structures (including Atlantic Incubation Partners / Affinity Global Development) and envisioned an investment of about $500 million, a 99-year lease on the site and a profit share for the state of Serbia of about 22%, the New York Times and other media reported earlier.
https://t.me/relocationrs/1947
