A businessman from Dubai, Muhamed Alabar, who is enabled by the Serbian government to buy Belgrade part by part, did not manage to buy even a part of Zagreb because the professional public, the opposition and the citizens prevented the local authorities from selling it to him.
In 2015, the media presented him as an anonymous businessman from Dubai whose money will enable Aleksandar Vučić to realize his dream of Belgrade on the water, and now it is enough to say only Alabar.
In the minds of Belgraders, his name means "the one who buys more and more Belgrade". Some frown because of that, and some beam. Recently, the state sold another 327 hectares of Belgrade to his company Eagle Hills, which already owns Belgrade on the Water.
This area includes the "Mostarska Petlja", three individual blocks in Savska Street, the entire area of the Belgrade Fair with a garage and the Gospodarska Mehana tram turnpike in Vojvode Mišić Boulevard, the Petlja Radnička area as part of the Ada Bridge with the surrounding water area and marina, the Sava Backwater with the coast of Ada Ciganliji and the entrance to Ada itself, the area of the "Old Sugar Factory", the belt along the Topčiderska River up to the Guard House, and in New Belgrade the area between Gazela and the Ada Bridge, including the banks of the Sava and the Old Railway Bridge.
According to economists, that space is worth twenty billion euros.
Direct deal
That part of Belgrade belongs to Alabar was determined by the Government of Serbia with the Decision on Drafting Amendments to the Special Purpose Area Plan for the Development of the Coastal Area of the City of Belgrade - the Sava River Coastal Area for the "Belgrade on the Water" Project. Alabar just paid, and started implementing the Decision.
The plan is prepared by the Spatial Planning and Urbanism Agency of the Republic of Serbia. However, an international urban planning and architectural competition, which is expected for such an undertaking, was not announced, but the government agreed the entire work with Alabara through a direct contract.
This could mean the following: that the government does not respect the law, that Serbian laws do not apply to Alabar, that what he wants to do in that part of Belgrade would not win the international competition, because without any doubt the international jury would know what is good and what is not, that what he wants to do, the government also wants. And that's why everything else is unnecessary, and that's why Belgrade is decided by direct negotiation.
Like in Belarus
To make the matter even worse, all that, both the Decision and the bargain, happen somehow at the same time when it was found out (Reuters) that Alabar launched the sale of his share in the North Waterfront project in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, which is under attack from the West due to its proximity to Russia. sanction. North Waterfront is a residential area similar to Belgrade on the water. It occupies 1000 hectares of Minsk, which Alabar received by decree from President Lukashenko with numerous permits, even to increase the density of built-up space to 93 percent.
Of course, the latter does not concern us, except that it indicates the coincidence of the relations of the Belarusian and local authorities towards Alabar, but that is why part of this story about the sale should concern us because, anything is possible.
How do the people of Zagreb do it?
In Zagreb, Muhamed Alabar was unable to buy anything, but he wanted to. During the time of the mayor Milan Bandić, he wanted to start Zagreb-city, a congress-business-residential megacomplex along the Sava, in the area of the Velesaj, but he did not succeed. The professional public, the opposition and citizens were against it, and the city government abandoned the project four years ago.
Belgrade was not so lucky. The professional public, the opposition and citizens only resent the expansion of Belgrade on the water to another 327 hectares, which is of course the same as remaining silent, even though they already have a black-and-white example of Belgrade on the water, which brought them nothing.
When the information was recently confirmed (Reuters) that Alabar is cooperating with Jared Kushner regarding the General Staff building, that the government will lease it to them for 99 years free of charge in order to turn it into a residential and business complex, there was no response again. There were several media articles and expert reactions about this cooperation and its consequences. So nothing again.
And afterwards we are all surprised when it is already late. The people of Zagreb may know something that the people of Belgrade do not know.
Veran Matić warns that the professional media are exhausted by long-term pressures and that any further worsening of their position could have irreversible consequences.
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