Trump Son-In-Law’s Company To Renovate Serbia’s NATO-Struck Army HQ
By Milica Stojanovic
Serbia’s Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Goran Vesic, has signed a contract with Affinity Global Development’s director Asher Abehsera on revitalizing the former Army General Headquarters in Belgrade, demolished by the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.
Affinity Partners is Jared Kushner, former US president Donald Trump’s son-in-law’s, investment firm. It has $2 billion in funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, among other foreign investors, media have reported.
“We are very excited,” the New York Times reported Kushner as saying in an interview in March about planned projects in Belgrade and Albania. “We have not finalized these deals, so they might not happen, but we have been working hard and are pretty close.”
The former military HQ is in the Belgrade city centre, right across from the gvernment building.
According to the ministry press release, Vesic said the government had leased the premises for 99 years but did not specify at what price.
“The investor has assumed the obligation that, if he does not complete the investment within the period specified in the contract, he will return the land and what will be built until then to the Republic of Serbia without compensation,” Vesic said after signing the deal on Wednesday*.
The press release said the investor will also be obliged to build a memorial complex “dedicated to all the victims of NATO aggression” from 1999 on the plot.
“The memorial complex will be financed by investors and will be owned by the Republic of Serbia, which will decide on the program content of the complex and will manage it,” Vesic said.
The design of the memorial complex will be determined at an international architectural competition.
Abehsera said the project includes a unique aspect of cooperation in which Serbian architects and designers will be invited to submit their ideas for the Memorial Centre.
Kushner previously confirmed plans on X (former Twitter) to invest in this complex as well as in two locations on the Albanian coast. The same New York Times report in March said that Kushner been working on the Balkan deals with Richard Grenell, who served briefly as acting director of national intelligence under Trump and also ambassador to Germany and special envoy to the Balkans.
According to the NYT, the investment in Belgrade will be a luxury hotel and 1,500 residential units and a museum. It also reported that Trump himself had showed interest in working with this complex in 2013, but Kushner claimed he did not know about this.
The former Yugoslav army HQ was severely damaged in two 1999 NATO air attacks, beween April 29 and 30 and between May 7 and 8. Part of the premises were demolished between 2014 and 2017 for security reasons.
Information that a US company will take over the demolished HQ was first revealed by the Serbian opposition in March, drawing criticism because of suspicions of corruption but also because of the damaged HQ’s architectural and cultural value. It was claimed that the land on which the HQ lies was being leased free of charge.
The building was constructed in 1965 and designed by the famous Serbian architect Nikola Dobrovic.