Jared Kushner gets green light on $500m Serbia hotel project

Serbian minister said he had chosen ‘reputable American company’

Jared Kushner, CEO & Founder, Affinity Partners, speaks on stage during an event in New York City on September 2022 (Getty Images for Concordia Summi)

Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has been given approval to build a $500m luxury hotel on a former defense ministry site in Serbia.

The deal, announced by the Serbian government, will see the bombed-out site of the former Yugoslav Ministry of Defense in Belgrade, transformed into a hotel complex.

Bombs were dropped on the site in 1999 by NATO forces, backed by the US, during the Serbia-Kosovo war.

Goran Vesić, Serbia’s minister of construction, transport and infrastructure, said on Wednesday that he had chosen a “reputable American company” for the venture, referring to Affinity Partners owned by Mr Kushner.

"We will restore the building 25 years after it was destroyed in the bombing. In a quarter of a century, no one, before this government, thought of renovating the complex. When this area is revitalised, it will contribute to the development of Belgrade and Serbia," Mr Vesić said in a statement.

Donald Trump (L), his daughter Ivanka Trump (C) and her husband Jared Kushner attend the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 299 mixed martial arts event at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida on March 9, 2024 (AFP via Getty Images)

“The economic progress in Serbia over the past decade has been impressive,” Mr Kushner said in a statement, released to The New York Times. “This development will further elevate Belgrade into the premier international destination it is becoming.”

Mr Kushner’s business practices have been called into question, however, since his father-in-law could once again become US president.

Mr Trump’s son-in-law, who is married to Ivanka Trump, set up his company after leaving his role at the White House in 2021. The government of Saudi Arabia is one of the major funders of Mr Kushner’s company, which could pose a conflict of interest should Mr Trump return to the presidency.

“It is a conflict of interest in the most stark sense: The president of the United States needs to be advancing the interest of the United States and not the financial interests of family members,” Adav Noti, executive director of Campaign Legal Center, which tracks ethics issues in the federal government, told The New York Times.

Mr Kushner has said that he doesn’t plan on returning to the White House, so there is no conflict of interest.

In March, Democrats in the House of Representatives called for a probe into Mr Kushner’s overseas dealings, saying his “influence peddling and quid pro quo deals involving investments in exchange for official actions” could mean a threat to US national security.

It was reported in May that Mr Kushner had been calling investors, asking them to attend a fundraiser for Mr Trump in New York, raising questions as to whether he was indeed trying to get back into politics, despite his assertions otherwise.

Meanwhile, the hotel plan in Belgrade is being met with scepticism from some locals. Reuters reported that over 22,000 people have signed a petition calling for the former ministry to be preserved rather than replaced.

On Thursday, protesters appeared outside the site, saying they did not want Americans moving in on the land, which they say that the US had a role in bombing 25 years ago.

“Somebody is trying to clear up the mess that they did, and they are not those who should do anything in this place,” Dragan Jonic, a member of parliament who participated in the protest, told theTimes. “We’ll use all the legal means and civil disobedience to stop this.”

As part of the agreement, Mr Kushner will have to build a memorial to those who died at the site during the 1999 conflict.