It started from "only" one hundred hectares. To date, Belgrade on the water has quintupled in size, and may continue to expand. "Vreme" brings everything about the history of this megalomaniacal project of Aleksandar Vučić and its metastases
The Sava Amphitheater, where it came from ten years ago Belgrade on the moveand began to spread across the capital, it has long been the subject of investors.
The Russian architect was the first, with the General Plan in 1923 he envisioned apartments there, then Dobrović wanted to connect it with the Terazij Plateau, in the early XNUMXs SANA announced an invitation to tender for its arrangement, and so on.
In 1995, the Sava Amphitheater was involved in politics for the first time: the CIP Institute made a conceptual project for "Europolis" and used it as a pre-election promise of SPS, but did not fulfill it. Then, in 2008, it was revived by the director of the CIP, Milutin Mrkonjić, the holder of the SPS list for local elections and for mayor, promising in videos that "Belgrade will descend on the rivers". But Mrkonjić did not win, and the idea died.
At the beginning was Vučić
And then in April 2012, Aleksandar Vučić, SNS candidate in the mayoral elections, appeared and presented the SPS idea as his own, describing it as Belgrade on the water.
That's how it started. turning public interest into private.
At that moment, and according to Aleksandar Vučić, Belgrade on the water covers an area of about 90 hectares, which is about 120 football fields, between the Belgrade Fair and Branko Bridge, between the Sava River and Savska Street.
The realization of Belgrade on the water started to be talked about in December of that year when Vučić hosted Muhamed Alabar, the founder of the Emaar Properties company and the president of the Eagle Hills company from the United Emirates. Aleksandar Vučić was then the first vice president of the Serbian government.
The police are guarding the billboard.
The next time they appeared together in public was on June 27, 2014, to present the Master Plan and the model of Belgrade on the water. It was in the renovated Geozavod building, which became the headquarters of the "Belgrade on the Water" Company. Vučić was the prime minister at the time. They announced that the investment should amount to 3,1 billion euros.
The Special Purpose Area Spatial Plan (SPA) for Belgrade on the Water was adopted in 2014, which enabled the construction of a business-residential complex on the right bank of the Sava, on the site of a former warehouse, railway hub and wharf, on an area of 177,27 hectares.
At that time, there was already a huge billboard of the "Belgrade on the Water" Company at the former Belgrade railway station, which presented the urban vision of Belgrade. A police car was parked in front of the billboard day and night to defend it.
Laws according to the will of the individual
In order that the implementation of this Plan would not be hindered by anything, the existing General Urban Plan of Belgrade and the Spatial Plan were changed in just a few months. The Study of Tall Buildings, according to which skyscrapers could not be built on the coast, was invalidated. In 2014, the Government of Serbia declared Belgrade on the Water a project of national importance, and part of the coast a special purpose area.
The latter enabled the Government of Serbia to assume jurisdiction over Belgrade on the water from the City of Belgrade, as well as to implement its project not according to planning documents but according to the Special Purpose Area Plan. PPPN is done exceptionally and for purposes of public interest, for arranging important natural assets and resources, not parts of the city. This change legitimized the Government's right to decide on Belgrade according to its will.
Lex specialis
All of this was a prelude to the adoption of the lex specialis for Belgrade on the water in April 2015, which determined the public interest in the expropriation of real estate for the construction of a commercial and residential complex. Thus, the existing Law on Expropriation was bypassed, according to which land expropriation could not be for shopping malls and ordinary construction, but for infrastructure and construction of public importance. With this kind of expropriation procedure, citizens are deprived of their immovable property against their will, with compensation.
All this because of the need to realize the project of a private company. It was the legalization of investor urbanism, realized in a private-public partnership.
And where is Vučić?
The contract on the implementation of the Belgrade on Water project was signed on April 26, 2015 by the Minister of Construction, Zorana Mihajlović, Mohamed Alabar, and the then director of the Belgrade on Water Company, Aleksandar Trifunović. Aleksandar Vučić, then the prime minister, did not attend this event.
With this contract, the company "Belgrade on the water" was given, free of charge, about 100 hectares of construction land in one of the most attractive locations in Serbia. The State of Serbia, as a minority owner of the company, has committed to financing the clearing of the entire area and the construction of the accompanying infrastructure. She became the owner of 32 percent of the capital, and the remaining 68 percent belonged to a partner from the Emirates. An investment of 3,5 billion euros was announced, and insiders claimed that the Eagle Hills company provides 300 million euros, 150 million in capital and 150 million through loans.
It was then announced on the website of the "Belgrade on the Water" Company that this "new urban center is located on 1,8 million square meters", and that there will be six thousand apartments for 14 thousand people, eight hotels, 165 apartments and the 168-meter Belgrade Tower, the tallest building in Serbia with 40 floors, and that it alone will cost 12 billion dinars.
Who are the apartments for?i
The fact that Belgrade will get so many apartments should have pleased the citizens of Belgrade. However, they were elite apartments in an elite location inaccessible to ordinary citizens.
Thus, Belgrade on the water made the capital official as an area of social and economic inequality.
The building permit for the first buildings was issued on September 24, 2015, and the foundation stone was laid by Aleksandar Vučić and Muhamed Alabar on September 27.
Savamala
In order for Belgrade on the water to start construction, 233 buildings had to be demolished.
Ono in Savamala during the election night between April 24 and 25, 2016, when still unknown perpetrators with phantoms demolished an entire neighborhood in Herzegovina, it became the trademark of the project of Aleksandar Vučić, then the president of Serbia, and he will be remembered for several comments on that event: that it was done by "complete idiots" because they demolished at night, then "by chance I did not know about that action, if I had known I would have told them to get excavators and bulldozers and demolish them during the day, and give me one to sit in and I will do it, to criminally remove that mockery" and, finally, that behind everything that happened in Savamala and "which is very unpleasant", are the highest authorities of the city government in Belgrade.
Height expansion
Soon it turned out that a bigger Belgrade on the water would suit the investor, and he conveyed his wish to the Spatial Planning Agency, which forwarded it to whoever needed it.
Elem, on September 3, 2020, the Government of Serbia adopted the Decision on Amendments to the Plan of Belgrade on the Water, which planned more intensive urbanization, and it soon became clear that its goal was to satisfy the needs of investors. And that, in a roundabout way.
Namely, the total scope of construction on the planned scope, i.e. BRGP, remained the same as it was in the Plan from 2014 - 1.857.748,00 m2. However, the new Amendments allowed a higher number of floors, which therefore means that the BRGP was exceeded: in 19 out of 31 blocks, the maximum permitted height of buildings was drastically increased - as much as 100 meters instead of 22, 60 or 80 as it was until then.
There were more additions for the needs of investors: three metro stations were introduced - Sajam, Mostar and Savski trg, the mandatory minimum green area was also reduced, so some plots, previously 50 percent covered with greenery, were completely paved.
New 345 hectares
On the eve of the eighth anniversary of the illegal demolition of private buildings in Savamala, on April 5, 2024, The Government of Serbia made a decision on Amendments and Supplements to the Spatial Plan by which Belgrade on the water gets another 345 hectares of the capital.
In the decision signed by the then First Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dačić, it is stated that "the framework boundary of the changes and additions to the Spatial Plan includes parts of the cadastral municipalities: Savski venac, Stari grad, Novi Beograd and Čukarica."
As stated in the attached documentation, the border of the Plan includes two spatial, geomorphological and administrative units divided by the Sava River. Or, specifically: on the right bank of the Sava River, the space between Branko Bridge, Karađorđeva Street, Sava Square, Savska Street, Vojvode Mišić Boulevard to Šećerana, and on the left bank the space between the Ada Bridge, Vladimir Popović to Mihajlo Pupin Boulevard, the Stari Sava Bridge, and the planned extension of Zoran Đinđić Boulevard to Milentija Popović Street.
The client for the development of the plan is the "Belgrade na Vodi" Company, and the holder of the plan is the Agency for Spatial Planning and Urbanism of Serbia, whose director is Đorđe Milić, former assistant to the Minister of Construction, Goran Vesić.
Without annex
The public property was given to the "Belgrade on Water" Company. The land was given three times larger than the one given to her in the contract from 2015. It was not known on what basis, no annex to the contract was mentioned. That is not according to the law.
If this plan is adopted, and we know it will, Belgrade will be on the water stretch from Terazija terrace to Ada Ciganlija and to New Belgrade.
On Monday, June 9, a two-day public presentation of the Amendments and Supplements to the Plan began. Two-day, because the Spatial Planning Agency did not provide a large enough hall so that all those interested could attend at once and thus hear each other. The planners of the Urban Institute had 30 minutes to present their work, and the citizens, about fifty of them in each group, 45 minutes for questions.
Responsible planners are Aleksandar Vučićević and Maja Joković Potkonjak. They explained that eight more units were added to the basic plan of seven units, to be dominated by housing with commercial, cultural and other facilities necessary for the functioning of a modern settlement.
They said that the Belgrade Fair area will be completely changed. Hall 1, a cultural monument, becomes a cultural object and a multi-functional center. The traffic backbone is the extension of Woodrow Wilson Boulevard, the occupancy in the blocks is 70 percent, the height of the buildings is 60 to 120 meters, green areas make up 45 percent. A school and a combined children's institution will be built, Milan Vapa's factory will become a Tesla museum, the old Railway Bridge will become a pedestrian and bicycle path, Terazijska Terrace will be a green corridor with residential buildings along the edge...
Where is the public interest?
One of the citizens' questions was - are you aware that you are complicit in the robbery of Belgrade, where is the public interest?
"You are moving and demolishing five generations in order to allow a private investor to build luxury apartments with our money. A public discussion is not enough for this planning document, but a referendum at the level of Belgrade," said Saša Stanković, manager of the housing association from Gavrila Princip 41.
Architect Bojan Kovačević said that the author of this project, the Urban Institute, "should be dissolved".
A public hearing is scheduled for June 30. Most likely, it will be online, and not live as before, according to the recently adopted rulebook. The profession and the public claim that this eliminates even the tiniest bit of dialogue between the state and citizens.
Who benefits from Belgrade on the water?
When completed, Belgrade on the water will occupy five square kilometers of the capital, if no new expansion is requested.
Although it has twice the share, Mohamed Alabar's Eagle Hills has so far paid a little more than 60 million euros into the joint company, in four tranches - three times 20 million and once 20.000 euros. On the other hand, with the payment of one million dinars, the government, as part of its founding role, also included 177 hectares, perhaps the most attractive building land in the Balkans, in the partnership firm.
From its establishment until last year, the "project of the century", as the President of the Republic calls it, paid only 6,6 million euros in dividends to the state coffers based on the realized profit. Belgrade's net profit on the water in 2023 was 44,6 million euros, 14,7 million less than in 2022. The majority owner is entitled to twice as much as Belgrade.
The capital, therefore, has no special advantage over Belgrade on the water. The ordinary world has no use for him, he has never even set foot there - not even for a coffee in the president's favorite "Gallery", for concerts even less, and he doesn't care about walking along the concrete Promenade.
It would be fair if one day, as soon as possible, we find out why Belgrade on the water exists.
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