The Tamesis
Plans to transform one of Belgrade’s most popular architectural sites into a Trump-branded luxury hotel have reportedly collapsed after Serbia’s culture minister and several senior heritage officials were indicted. The Art Newspaper, Bringing a controversial redevelopment plan to an abrupt halt.
The project will transform the former Yugoslav military headquarters and postwar modernist landmark General General complex into a high-end development anchored by the Trump International Hotel. But the developer, Jared Kushner-linked Affinity Global Development, has reportedly withdrawn from the deal following the indictment of Serbian Culture Minister Nikola Serakovic and three other senior officials involved in cultural heritage protection. The Art Newspaper.
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Prosecutors have accused the officials of abusing their power and forging official documents, charges they deny. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Affinity Global Development itself, but the timing of the exit underscores how politically fraught the project is.
The Generalštab site was severely damaged during the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and has long been the focus of debates about memory, heritage and reconstruction. Tensions escalated late last year when the Serbian government passed special legislation to overturn the building’s protected status, a move that critics warned could set a dangerous precedent for other heritage sites.
The public opposition has been fierce, symbolized in part by the rise of a U.S.-affiliated luxury hotel on a site that many Serbs associate with NATO airstrikes. The project’s failure will only intensify scrutiny of how Serbia treats its socialist-era architecture, as preservationists warn other modernist landmarks remain at risk under growing development pressures.
