Agency for Licensing Bankruptcy Trustees she sold je The old sugar factory in Belgrade for 690 million dinars, reports N1.
The sugar factory was sold at a public auction, in which three bidders participated. A second offer of 690 million dinars was accepted, and the initial price was 680 million dinars.
People's deputies Aleksandar Jovanović Ćuta, Danijela Nestorović and a group of activists tried to prevent the sale, but they failed.
A female person who participated in the auction and who was the only one who accepted the offer of 690 million dinars, said that she was there on behalf of the law office "GS & M", which represents the buyer whose name she did not want to reveal.
The buyer received 18 immovable properties, the smallest of which has 37, and the largest 3.716 square meters. Among the buildings that were sold is the KPGT Theater Cultural Institution, which is located in the Stara Šečerana complex, and which has been a city institution since 2021.
The "Sugar Factory" complex has been a cultural asset since 1984, and it is located within the spatial cultural-historical unit "Topčider", which has been a cultural asset of historical importance since 1987.
Let's remind the beginning of this public bidding was marked by MP Aleksandar Jovanović Ćuta and a group of activists who tried to prevent this sale from taking place.
Print screenSugar mill, protected area
History
Otherwise, The old sugar house it extends over 12 hectares, in a very attractive location across the street Ade Ciganlije. The state in which it is currently found does not correspond to the status of immovable cultural property and cultural monument that it enjoys.
Since the relocation of production to Padina Skela in 1983, the former pride of Belgrade's industrial architecture has been left to the test of time.
Vesić's promises
It seemed that better days were coming for Stara Šečerana when in 2022 the city parliament declared this space a cultural center which, as the then deputy mayor Goran Vesić said, would not be able to be used for commercial purposes, but only for culture, education and tourism.
"We will restore all the buildings in that area because they are under the protection of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments." KPGT will remain there, which has already become a kind of brand of that space, we will build theaters, galleries, IT hub spaces, everything that is intended for education and culture, and finally we will protect that space," Vesić promised in February 2022.
The hope of Ljubiša Ristić
Neither the first nor the last promise that fell into oblivion. The old sugar factory was forgotten in Radnička Street, until April of this year when the Government of Serbia made a decision to change the Spatial Plan "Belgrade on the Water". The settlement, which sprung up on the banks of the Sava in the previous 10 years, will thus expand to additional plots in the area of Sava venc and Stari Grad, as well as New Belgrade and Čukarica. Among those parcels, as could be seen on the map published with the Government's decision, is the area of the Old Sugar Factory.
And as it usually happens, when an investor comes along, things speed up. A month later, the Agency for the Licensing of Bankruptcy Administrators announced the sale of the "First Serbian Sugar Factory Dimitrije Tucović 1898" in bankruptcy at Radnička 3, at an initial price of 680,6 million dinars.
Ljubiša Ristić, director of the only place in Stara Šečerana where you can feel the pulse - KPGT Cultural Institution - is convinced, however, that the expansion of "Belgrade on the Water" does not threaten the future of Stara Šečeran as a cultural center.
He hopes that the state will use the right of first refusal to take over the Old Sugar Factory, and he sees "Belgrade on the water" in the immediate neighborhood only as a plus.
"The expansion of Belgrade on the water is planned for the plots of the Stara Šečerana, but not by demolishing and building apartments here, but the state's Arab partner in that project could participate in the financing and construction of the cultural center in the Stara Šečerana," said Ristić in May for "Politics".
Vesić, today in the position of Minister of Construction, assures Ristić that there is nothing to worry about. During the weekend, together with his colleague from the Government, Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković, he visited the KPGT and repeated:
"Given that the tender for the sale of Šećerana is underway, my message to all companies that intend to participate in the tender is that if they want to invest six million euros in culture, they are welcome, but if they think that by buying Šećerana they will be able to to build, wasted money, because it will never happen."
On that occasion, Vesić and Selaković pointed out that the Old Sugar Mill is a protected cultural property, and therefore it is impossible to build anything there, but only to restore the buildings in accordance with the conditions of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments.
