One of Jared Kushner's planned ventures in the Balkans concerns the redevelopment of a site in Serbia's capital Belgrade.

Two years before Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he put his feelers out, telling Serbian authorities that he was interested in building a luxury hotel and apartment complex on the site of the former headquarters of the Yugoslav army, the General Staff building, destroyed in 1999 by NATO's bombing campaigns.

Although that project fell through, Kushner, who was a senior White House official during Trump's tenure, has now reportedly reached a tentative arrangement with the Serbian government to forge ahead with the development project. According to the New York Times, which received a draft outline, the agreement, with a 99-year lease at no charge, would allow Kushner to build a luxury hotel, residential units, shops and a museum on the site.

The funding for the project, amounting to around $500 million (€462 million), is expected to come from Kushner's investment firm, Miami-based Affinity Partners, which he set up after leaving the White House. And he doesn't appear to be short of funds. Since then, it's estimated that he has secured $2 billion from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, while sovereign wealth funds in the UAE and Qatar have plowed hundreds of millions of dollars into his firm.

Neither Affinity Partners nor Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund responded to DW's request for comment.

Kushner said recently that the negotiating parties had tentatively agreed to give the Serbian government 22% of the profits generated by the project.

President Aleksandar Vucic and his government argue that........

© Deutsche Welle