Trending:Bondi Beach shootingIPL Auction LIVERob Reiner deathUkraine peace planLuthra brothers deportation2025: The Year in ReviewSerbia halts hotel project at former Yugoslav army site after Kushner firm withdrawsagence france-presse • December 16, 2025, 20:12:39 ISTWhatsapp Facebook TwitterSerbian President Aleksandar Vucic confirmed that plans to redevelop the former Yugoslav army headquarters into a luxury hotel have been abandoned after Jared Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, withdrew from the project. AdvertisementSubscribe Join Us+ Follow us On GoogleChoose Firstpost on GoogleSerbia drops hotel redevelopment plan after Kushner’s firm pulls out amid controversy over cultural heritage status. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic confirmed Tuesday that a planned hotel development of the former Yugoslav army headquarters would not go ahead, after the investment firm linked to Donald Trump’s son-in-law pulled out.“We will now be left with a destroyed building, and it is only a matter of time before bricks and other parts start falling off it, because no one will ever touch it again,” Vucic told media in Belgrade. On Monday, Jared Kushner’s firm, Affinity Partners, told the Wall Street Journal that it was withdrawing from the project. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD“Meaningful projects should unite rather than divide, and out of respect for the people of Serbia and the city of Belgrade, we are withdrawing our application and stepping aside at this time,” a spokesman for the firm told the newspaper. More from World Can EU, ‘already in harm’s way’, save Ukraine from Trump’s peace terms? In talks with US, Ukraine gets close to security guarantees but deal on land remains elusiveThe announcement came after Serbian Culture Minister Nikola Selakovic and three others were indicted over alleged abuse of office and forgery of an official document that had allowed the removal of the site’s “cultural-heritage status”. Plans to transform the bombed-out former Yugoslav army headquarters in Belgrade into a high-rise hotel first stalled in May when allegations emerged that the move to revoke the building’s protected status had been based on a forged document. Protests erupted afterwards in the capital, with demonstrators calling for the towering ruins to be preserved both for their unique modernist architecture and as a memorial to mark the 1999 NATO bombing that left the building damaged. Quick ReadsView AllBondi Beach shooting: How an elderly couple tried to stop a gunman, dashcam footage revealsWatch: Ethiopian PM welcomes PM Modi, personally drives him to hotelVucic blamed critics of the project for destroying an investment of “at least 750 million euros” ($880 million).“As a state and as a nation, we are major losers,” Vucic said.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Firstpost staff.)Follow Firstpost on Google. Get insightful explainers, sharp opinions, and in-depth latest news on everything from geopolitics and diplomacy to World News.
