Jared Kushner’s new real estate deal in Serbia, which was revealed just a few weeks ago, might be in trouble. The Daily Beast reported that the development proposed by the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump’s Affinity Group investment firm has met with local political opposition.
The proposed development includes a plan for a luxury hotel, as well as 1,500 residential units and a museum for the Serbian capital Belgrade. If approved, this would be built at the site of the long-vacant former headquarters of the Yugoslav Army that was destroyed in a NATO attack against Serbian forces during the Yugoslavian civil war in 1999.
According to The Daily Beast, a Serbian opposition group called the Kreni-Promeni (Make Changes) Movement opposes the project because it would tear down what they feel is a historic building and cause changes to the city’s character. It launched a petition against the development that already has more than 25,000 signatures.
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“It’s one of the pearls of pre-war architecture,” Stefanovic, who is the deputy president of the Party of Freedom and Justice in Serbia’s parliament, told The Daily Beast. “There is the emotional aspect: This site was bombed by NATO in 1999. Most Serbs believe this site should not be desecrated in any way.”
Stefanovic went on to say that Serbia’s current government wants Donald Trump to win the US Presidential election because it thinks Trump will be more amenable to its policies, implying this is why it is currying favor with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Jared Kushner released a few images of one of the projects on Twitter saying, “Excited to share some early design images for development projects we have been creating for the Albanian coast and downtown Belgrade.”
According to the Jewish Virtual Library, Jared Kushner, born on January 10, 1981 in Livingston, New Jersey, is the son of real estate developer Charles Kushner. When his father was imprisoned amid financial and political scandal, Kushner took over the family business and also went into publishing with his purchase of The New York Observer. In 2009, he wed Ivanka Trump, daughter of another real estate mogul, Donald Trump. Kushner served as a close political advisor to Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign and his transition to the White House. His grandparents were Holocaust survivors who moved to the United States in 1949. He was named a senior adviser to the president in January 2016.
Jared Kushner’s real estate company currently holds loans that contain millions from both foreign and domestic entities. In 2016, the Kushner family net worth is estimated to be $1.8 billion, the majority of which is in real-estate property holdings, according to Forbes. Kushner and his family are Modern Orthodox Jews, keep a kosher home, and observe the Jewish Sabbath. In 2017, federal disclosures suggested Kushner and his wife had assets worth at least $740 million.