Danube Riverside, a company owned by Millennium Team, was issued a building permit exclusively for preparatory works, which, according to the document, included excavation and the construction of a retaining wall to protect the foundation pit. The permit was signed on March 27 last year by Darko Glišić, then Minister for Public Investment, who at the time was exercising the powers of the Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure.
Although arrest warrants have been issued for Millennium Team owners Stojan Vujko and Ivan Bošnjak, a decision is still pending from the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade. The delay concerns requests submitted by the suspects’ defense attorneys seeking the disqualification of the prosecutor handling the case, who had ordered their arrest. Notably, the requests were filed on the same day their arrests were sought and they were served with detention orders for up to 48 hours.
The Third Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade suspects Bošnjak and Vujko, along with Andreja Đulić, the responsible person at Danube Riverside, of carrying out construction work without a building permit at the site of the former Hotel Jugoslavija in Belgrade.
What does the permit for preparatory works actually say?
Shortly before the Prosecutor’s Office made its announcement, it emerged that an application for a building permit to construct a residential and commercial complex had been rejected.
Danube Riverside had been granted a permit for preparatory works related to the construction of a residential and commercial complex featuring a 43-story tower, a nine-story hotel, commercial facilities and a 35-story office building.
The document states that the authorized works included excavation and the construction of a retaining wall to protect the foundation pit. The estimated value of the works was set at 960 million dinars excluding VAT, or approximately 8.2 million euros.
Vujko and Bošnjak’s company was also issued a certificate confirming the registration of preparatory works on July 7, 2025. The document was signed by Milica Negić, acting Assistant Minister. July 4, 2025, was listed as the scheduled starting date for the preparatory works. It also states that construction could begin once the certificate was published.
The application for a building permit to construct the complex on the site of the iconic Hotel Jugoslavija was rejected on November 10.
As reported by N1, approval was not granted for the proposed construction plan involving the phased development of a residential and commercial complex with an underground parking garage. Specifically, the rejected application concerned the first phase, which envisaged the construction of a nine-story hotel with commercial facilities and a garage on cadastral plot 2442 in the Zemun cadastral municipality.
Ministry identified 28 deficiencies
The Ministry determined that the formal requirements for issuing a building permit had not been met.
In its explanation accompanying the decision, the Ministry listed 28 deficiencies that the investor must address, most of which concerned incomplete or inconsistent documentation.
Hotel Jugoslavija was sold at an auction on March 22, 2024, for its starting price of 3,176,997,271 dinars, equivalent to slightly more than 27 million euros. The buyer was MV Investment, a company owned by Millennium Team.
In fact, MV Investment acquired the legal entity Danube Riverside, which was undergoing bankruptcy proceedings and whose assets included Hotel Jugoslavija.
Millennium Team announced plans to build a luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel on the site of Hotel Jugoslavija, which was demolished down to its foundations in early 2025. The development is also expected to include a residential tower, an office tower, accompanying commercial facilities and an underground parking garage.
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Source: Nova Foto: N1/ Tanjug
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