Plans to turn one of Belgrade’s most charged architectural sites into a Trump-branded luxury hotel have collapsed after Serbia’s culture minister and several senior heritage officials were indicted, according to The Art Newspaper, bringing a controversial redevelopment proposal to an abrupt halt.
The project would have transformed the Generalštab complex, a former Yugoslav military headquarters and landmark of postwar Modernism, into a high-end development anchored by a Trump International Hotel. But the developer, Affinity Global Development, a company linked to Jared Kushner, has now withdrawn from the deal following indictments against Nikola Selaković, Serbia’s minister of culture, and three other senior officials involved in cultural heritage protection, according to The Art Newspaper.
Prosecutors have accused the officials of abuse of office and falsifying official documents, allegations they deny. There has been no suggestion of wrongdoing by Affinity Global Development itself, though the timing of the withdrawal underscores how politically fraught the project had become.
The Generalštab site, badly damaged during NATO’s 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia, has long been a flashpoint in debates over memory, heritage, and redevelopment. Tensions escalated late last year when the Serbian government moved to override the building’s protected status through special legislation, a maneuver critics warned could set a dangerous precedent for other heritage sites.
Public opposition was fierce, fueled in part by the symbolism of a U.S.-affiliated luxury hotel rising on a site many Serbians associate with NATO airstrikes. The collapse of the project has only intensified scrutiny of how Serbia treats its Socialist-era architecture, as preservationists warn that other Modernist landmarks remain at risk amid mounting development pressure.
