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The project has stalled after a scandalous revelation involving the site's historic designation - and the decision to rescind the designation last year...
The continuation of Jared Kushner's Belgrade hotel project, which is being built by US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, is in doubt. All questions about the project's future have been raised after Serbian authorities arrested the former director of the country's top cultural heritage institute on charges of forging official documents.
The project was supposed to be a luxurious and elegant building on the Belgrade skyline: a luxury hotel and residential complex worth $500 million, built on top of the damaged Ministry of Defense office that was bombed by NATO aircraft in 1999.
The man leading this effort was none other than Jared Kushner, who is married to one of US President Donald Trump's daughters, and this was expected to be Trump's first such compound in Europe.
The project has been halted after the scandalous revelation. Serbian prosecutors announced on May 14 that the official responsible for the site’s historic designation had forged a key document and had been arrested. Goran Vasic, the acting director of the Republican Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, admitted to forging an expert opinion.
He is suspected of forging the documents to facilitate a controversial real estate project backed by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, prosecutors in Belgrade said.
Goran Vasic, who headed the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments (RZZSK), is accused of forging a document that allowed the Serbian government to strip the monument status of the bombed-out Yugoslav General Staff building in central Belgrade, paving the way for the development of a luxury Trump-branded complex.
The Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime said Vasic exceeded his official authority and committed "abuse of office" and "falsification of an official document," charges that carry prison sentences under Serbia's criminal code.
The building, destroyed by NATO airstrikes during the 1999 war in Kosovo, has long been a powerful symbol of Serbia's suffering during the war. The plan to replace it with a hotel and luxury residences has already sparked a widespread backlash from civil society groups, architects and opposition parties, who argue that the site should be preserved as a national memorial.
The project is being developed by Kushner's Miami-based investment firm, Affinity Partners, in collaboration with UAE property tycoon Mohamed Alabbar.
Kushner, who left the White House in 2021, shared digital images of the proposed complex in March.
Sales are scheduled to begin in mid-2025.
Critics see the venture as a political move by the Serbian government to gain support from the U.S. government. Trump first expressed interest in the country in Belgrade in 2014. In recent months, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has held several high-profile meetings with Kushner and Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who visited Belgrade in April.
"The falsified proposal, made without consulting professionals, was sent to the government through the Ministry of Culture," prosecutors said in a statement.
The government officially revoked the country's cultural status on November 14, 2024.
According to local media outlet N1, the investigation was launched following an anonymous criminal complaint, with Serbian intelligence and Interior Ministry agents later retrieving the suspected forged documents from the institute.
Vasic, who is not certified as an expert, did not have the required qualifications to authorize changes to protected cultural properties, the report adds.
The arrest comes amid a broad wave of anti-government protests fueled by public anger over corruption and institutional failures.
On March 24, thousands of Serbs took to the streets to mark the anniversary of the NATO bombing campaign, rallying against the planned development. Protesters condemned what they described as the "commercialization of a national tragedy" and accused officials of betraying Serbia's heritage.
The Belgrade project, one of several foreign-funded initiatives aimed at transforming the Serbian capital in the run-up to Expo 2027, remains a political flashpoint in the country's increasingly polarized public discourse.
Kushner's Belgrade project -- the Trump International Hotel -- was announced to great fanfare in March 2024. Along with another luxury development on Albania's Adriatic coast, it was a major investment in the Balkans and the first Trump-branded development in all of Europe.
Under the terms of the deal, the land would be leased to Kushner's company for 99 years.
While several nearby buildings have been rebuilt amid a boom in Belgrade's real estate market, the two damaged structures remain, designated as historic structures and granted protected status.
Last November, the Serbian government decided to strip the buildings of their cultural heritage designation, paving the way for Kushner's company to move forward with the development of a hotel complex.
This decision was based largely on Vasic, who had been appointed director of the cultural protection institute five months earlier, after the institute's then-director refused to remove the cultural designation for the site.
After the decision, institute employees complained that the process violated legal procedures.
After admitting the forgery, activists and lawyers called on the Serbian government to cancel not only the decision that stripped the site of its protected status, but the entire development project.
“We expect the government, in light of these developments and accusations of document forgery, to urgently reconsider the decision to lift protection for this extraordinary cultural asset,” said Vesna Marjanovic, who heads an organization for the preservation of cultural heritage called Europa Nostra Serbia.
Jovan Rajic, a lawyer and president of the Regulatory Institute for Renewable Energy and Environment, called on the government to halt the development project for the time being.
"All negotiations with the investor should be suspended immediately until the competent authorities make a decision," Rajic said. / Adapt Pamphlet/
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