Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, has withdrawn from a major real estate deal in Serbia following intense public backlash and a widening legal scandal involving senior Serbian officials.
The deal, pursued through Kushner’s private equity firm Affinity Partners, would have seen the acquisition and redevelopment of the bombed-out former Yugoslav Ministry of Defense headquarters in central Belgrade in a project valued at approximately $500 million.
The withdrawal was announced shortly after Serbian prosecutors indicted multiple government officials, including Culture Minister Nikola Selaković, on charges of abuse of office and document forgery. The indictments are tied to efforts to strip the site of its protected status, which had prevented redevelopment.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Affinity Partners said the firm was stepping away from the project out of respect for public sentiment. “Because 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,” the statement read.
Affinity Partners had initially signed a 99-year lease on the site in 2024, but the project quickly became politically toxic. Public opposition intensified as many Serbians viewed the redevelopment as an erasure of a wartime memorial and a commercialization of national trauma.
The buildings, known as the Generalštab complex or Army Headquarters, were heavily damaged during NATO’s 1999 bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. Although the site was struck multiple times, the attacks were largely symbolic, as Ministry of Defense personnel had already evacuated prior to the bombings.
For many Serbians, the ruined complex has served as a de facto memorial, symbolizing both the war and civilian casualties of NATO’s air campaign. In 2005, the site was formally designated as a protected cultural landmark, preserving the damaged structures largely intact, aside from a small annex constructed in 2014.
The Generalštab is not the only visible reminder of the 1999 conflict still standing in Belgrade. Other damaged or preserved sites include the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) building, the former Ministry of Internal Affairs building, and the Brankov Bridge.
The former Chinese Embassy, bombed on May 7, 1999, killing three Chinese journalists, was left standing for more than a decade before being demolished in 2010. A new Chinese cultural center was later constructed on the site, opening in 2017.