Trump Hotel to be Built on Site of NATO Bombing
By Andrea Vogt
Jared Kushner’s investment firm wins backing to turn Serbia’s bombed defence HQ into luxury resort
Serbia has approved the building of a Trump family hotel on the site of a 1999 Nato bombing in Belgrade.
The ministry of defence building was heavily damaged during strikes on Yugoslavia by allied forces during the Kosovo War.
Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US president Donald Trump, has pushed to turn the site into a luxury $500m (£370m) hotel with his Miami-based investment firm Affinity Partners.
A special law was voted through the Serbian parliament on Friday, classifying the redevelopment as urgent, by 130 votes to 40.
Yugoslav army soldiers outside the destroyed ministry of defence headquarters in 1999
How the building looks in modern-day Belgrade
Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic, who has hosted Mr Kushner multiple times, has given his personal support to the controversial plans for the building known as Generalstab.
Outcry over plans to erase ‘wartime memorial’
The plan has met strong opposition by groups claiming the building is a war memorial and the only surviving example of the work by Nikola Dobrović, the Yugoslav-era modernist architect.
“The demolition of the Generalstab must not happen. We will defend it,” Belgrade architects Katarina and Marina, with the arh.politicne civic group, told The Telegraph on Sunday.
“Given the shock this decision has caused, we expect various actions to take place in the coming days – peaceful protests and initiatives led by different activist and professional collectives – all aiming to increase public pressure and prevent this from happening.”
For many in Serbia, the iconic ruin is a stark reminder of the 78-day air strike campaign in 1999 when Nato planes targeted the regime of Slobodan Milošević for its attacks in Kosovo, using Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from US ships and submarines off Italy’s coast.
Critics say the redevelopment of the bombed Generalstab site risks erasing one of Serbia’s most potent war memorials
The Generalstab complex was hit twice on April 29, and once again in May 1999.
“You are sacrificing the nation’s history to please Trump and planning to pour champagne where bombs once fell,” prominent opposition politician Marinika Tepic said about parliament’s passage of the special law removing heritage protections.
“The land on which the complex stands belongs to the Serbian military and is located in one of the most central and valuable parts of Belgrade” a Serbian architect who did not want to be named told the Telegraph.
“To hand over this site to private investors connected to Donald Trump’s family – to the very same side that initiated the 1999 bombing – is viewed by most people here as an unacceptable and symbolic act of betrayal.”
For the majority of parliament, however, the gutted building is an eyesore on prime waterfront property long overdue for a makeover.
Affinity Global Development plan to build a hotel, apartment, shops and offices on the site of the former army headquarters.
Belgrade sees potential diplomatic gains
Serbian parliamentarian Milenko Jovanov pledged it would transform the city into a “destination not to be missed” by tourists travelling through Europe.
He also said the move could help curry favour with the Trump administration.
The lawmaker said: “Whether [the hotel] will lead to improving relations with the Trump administration, with the United States — honestly, I would like that.”
The Belgrade landmark, struck during Nato’s intervention, is earmarked for conversion into a Trump family project
Trump Tower Belgrade website has already posted a rendering and begun advertising pre-sales for “unrivalled luxury”.
“The only thing that is missing is the Gaza-style video,” the Corriere della Sera newspaper in Italy remarked on Sunday, in reference to a video Mr Trump posted depicting the reconstruction of Gaza.
General Wesley Clark, the Nato commander who oversaw the bombing campaign, claims no-one was killed in the strikes.
He has also spoken out against the project, saying the Serbian government’s requirement that a memorial complex dedicated to all the victims of the Nato attack be built on the site would amount to a betrayal toward Nato troops who participated in the campaign during the Serbian-Kosovo conflict.
Mr Vucic has faced growing anti-corruption protests and calls for early elections since the collapse of a badly constructed train station in the city of Novi Sad, which killed 16 people.
