Milorad Miško Mišković, Karlin Port Real Estate - My Prague-Serbian world of real estate and the life-game with two overtimes

Then, the day aftergraduation, he found a job in the American advertising company Webb Write International through an ad, and then the work at Müller International, the leading German consultancy in the sphere of commercial real estate at that time followed, from where he was acquired by the world`s largest commercial real estate consulting company, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).

And there, as he would say, he found himself in real estate by chance. In 2000, he moved to the Karlin Group, which was financed for years by Marc Rich, one of the world`s most famous investors at the time, and otherwise the founder of the Glencore company, which in 12 years of cooperation and management - he was commercial director at first, and later the general manager and one of the partners of the company - brought him not only that he was one of the actors of the famous revitalization of the former industrial district of Karlin (the revitalization process was started way back in 1997 and is still ongoing), but to get to know himself and profile his own style as a developer. With Mr. Serge Borenstein, the leading partner in the Karlin Group company, as he often says, he got to know and fell in love with the world of urbanism, architecture, design and everything beautiful. And so today he has become someone who, in his projects, always strives above all to preserve the genius loci - the spirit, the uniqueness of a part of the city...

And, finally, as a result of the enormous experience and success he achieved in this field, he founded the Karlin Port Real Estate company in 2012. And in his entire 30-year long business career in real estate, he participated in more than 80 projects in the city of Prague and more than one and a half million square meters of built-up area, residential and commercial functions.

And as it happens with a glass of honey and bitter pills to swallow, the interlocutor of eKapija had also in his professional ascent, apart from the usual business and even political obstacles - as the larger the projects, the greater the political involvement, a battle to fight with the most malignant opponent - cancer. Not once, but twice. And those battles were life and death - with sepsis, coma, loss of speech and the ability to walk, and our interlocutor emerged victorious from both battles. And after that, not only did he not slow down in life, but he sped up from 150 to 300 per hour, because, as he says, there is still so much waiting for him to do...

And some of the unfulfilled wishes are also projects related to his native Belgrade and his father`s native Montenegro, where he wants to transfer all the knowledge and skills he has acquired in three decades of living and working with the world`s most successful investors in Central Europe. And that was exactly one of the topics on which, in addition to numerous others, related to other projects in the area of ​​the former SFRY, including some - quite personal topics, Milorad Miško Mišković, the surname of the one better known to the Serbian public, whom the main character of this story of ours counts among the few serious names in real estate in our, Serbian climate, spoke for eKapija.

Another project related to Belgrade, as he states, is the construction of affordable living and social living apartments - accessible and social apartments, which, as he says, do not immediately mean poor quality and poor construction. On the contrary.

- If we successfully complete the acquisition, and we have been working on it for almost 3 years because it is a really complex matter, and it is also large for the Belgrade market, we will realize 3,500 units in one location. This does not exist in Belgrade today, unless we take into account Mr. Miroslav Mišković`s one-time project related to the Universiade, i.e. project known to our public as Belville.. Those affordable living and social living apartments do not mean cheap construction, poor quality or location. On the contrary. Both social and affordable housing can be in good locations, but for that we need quantity, a larger area of land on which something like that can be done. It would be something like a gated community, where apartment buyers could live in that ecosystem without the need to leave it frequently. Here, I am primarily referring to young families with children. All the services they need would be within that system, and such projects are very lacking in Belgrade - Mišković points out , not wanting to reveal the location in question, but nevertheless noting that it is "close enough to the city" and that, from from his point of view, as an experienced developer, it is an attractive location.

There are some other projects in which our interlocutor sees his role in Belgrade, but until they come to fruition, he would not like to divulge too many details. As he says, he would not open the eyes of "seasonal developers" with his ideas, as he calls all those who are not experienced and serious names in that sector - the elite, such as MPC, PSP FARMAN, Delta Real Estate, Milan Beko, etc.

- Wherever we see industrial zones, zones of former production of any kind that no longer exist there today, those are challenges for me. When talking about the revitalization of the coastal industrial part of the city, examples of this are HafenCity in Hamburg, Canary Wharf in London or several locations in Copenhagen, etc. These are locations along the river that can be and should be used in the right way, and which I hope will be used in the right way, with the signature of me or a similar developer. It is very important that we, my current partner in the company Miki Goldshtein, my team, are very atypical because we are trying to preserve the genius loci - the spirit of a certain part of the city. We intentionally leave the spirit of those industrial elements in all the projects we implement. We are not one of those people who tear down everything and build new ones, and then it looks like Miljakovac from 1980 - Mišković is sharp in his comparisons.

Although it is not related to Belgrade, Miškovic says that for our public, due to the future plan of the Belgrade railway station, the project that Karlin Port Real Estate is currently working on in Prague might be interesting.

- In February of this year, we managed to buy one of the three central railway stations in Prague, which has not been used for the past 30 years. In that project, we will preserve the genius loci of the railway station and we will create a new product that has not yet arrived on our market, nor on the Central Eastern European market, namely micro-apartments - for sale, of which there will be 171. In order to preserve the appearance of the railway station, the Institute for the Protection of Monuments in Prague pointed out that it exceeded their expectations and the minimums that must be met. And that is what makes me, that is, my company, different from 500 small and large development companies in the Czech Republic, and from Serbia, for now - Mišković points out.

However, this is what is seen, so to speak, in the shop-window, and what Milorad Miško Mišković survived until that shop-window, that is a different story - a completely personal one. About which our interlocutor was ready to speak for eKapija, convinced that his experience and his struggle will give a tail wind to some other people who encounter similar and other challenges on their life`s journey. And here we are talking about cancer, we will not say disease, because that is not what Miškovic calls it either. It was an obstacle for him, after which he got up three times stronger, both the first time and the second time, and he is convinced that it is not the result of any professional breakdowns, falls and ups and downs that are normal in the business world, but of enormous repressed sadness.

- No doctor will ever tell you that, but I will tell you today, after 10 years from the first and eight and a half years from the second cancer, that I got the first one probably because I was trying to get over my mother`s death and to preserve the outside world - my sister , my little family, my big family, godfathers and friends, so that they don`t see, or feel my pain. I believe that this sadness, which was long-lasting and huge, and which I kept inside, led to that.And when that happened, I was absolutely not thinking about myself. I thought what would happen to my family members when I left... And in both cases, the doctors gave me very little chance of survival - only 10%. Both in the case of cancer that I had in my head and in the case of acute leukemia that the deceased Siniša Mihajlović also had. And in both situations I had complications. I was in a coma, had sepsis. After leukemia and two and a half months of lying down, I also lost the power of speech, but in a few weeks I regained it, and in all languages. So my muscles atrophied from lying down and I couldn`t walk. It took me 20 minutes to walk a meter and a half. Those were the challenges... But my mind was strong enough. And I said to myself: "Well, Miškovic, how come it takes you 20 minutes to walk a meter and a half, and you`re doing sports - until that time, tennis, squash, football, basketball... And - faith in myself and that I can overcome it, of course with the support of those closest to me, I succeeded in that - our interlocutor speaks openly for eKapija, admitting that he believes that he has been given a second and a third chance because he has not yet shown everything...

- He was one of the very active and successful people. He was the director of various state-owned companies from 1960 until his death - among others Termoelektro, Minel, Invest Import... And we are from the mountains - from Vasojević. And when I say that, I`m proud of it. We have an enormous energy, but also an enormous burden. This is the burden of the highlander people - whether they are Herzegovinians, Montenegrins, Dalmatians - we want to succeed at any cost. And someone becomes a general, someone a policeman, someone a criminal, someone a director of a state or private company. Although I am a child from Belgrade, my father managed to pass that on to me. I sucked it up from him. My father was in any case a role model, an inspiration, but we are diametrically opposed. He passed on that highlander code to me. Not a gene, but a code. Of course, along with my mother Branka, who is originally from Romania and who is responsible for the openness and immediacy that I have. And the father was Montenegrin tough, but extremely correct and honorable. And I, at the age of 19, after returning from the army, realized that I didn`t want to be in his shadow,
like 90% of people in Serbia who inherited their fathers` businesses. I ran away from it. I felt that it would be a burden for me. I have to admit that one of the reasons for my success in the Czech Republic and, tomorrow of course, in Serbia and the former Yugoslavia is that I ran away from the shadow of my father and that I didn`t get lulled like my friends who, after graduating from college in Prague, went back and became part of that ecosystem of parent companies, or state companies - Mišković is convinced.

The moment he received his college degree at the end of May 1994 and found a job at an American advertising agency searching ads, he called his father and said that from that day on he would no longer ask for money or any help. Mišković points this out to us in the conversation with particular pride because, since then, he has achieved all his success by himself, without anyone`s help and with, as he says, work, work and only work. And with cosmic energy and tremendous persistence.

- I was surprised by his desire to go into real estate. I absolutely did not initiate it. But I don`t want him to work for me, until he gets enough "scars" in a couple of companies where he will work. Here I mean both business and social scars, because I don`t want him to be a spoiled child, as I wasn`t either. At the same time, he is starting a master`s degree at New York University - Mišković stated, noting that his wife Marina is not in business with him either.

She is, as he states, the director of one of the most famous companies in Prague that deals with IVF.

- When you are in the world of real estate, every day you have situations full of challenges, obstacles, and the bigger the projects, the bigger the obstacles. But life is a game and I play in it all. Sometimes, before I fall asleep at night or when I wake up in the morning, I think about how experientially rich my life is, that various billionaires of the world would envy me. And I`m not talking about money. "Success is not only about money," Miškovic emphasizes.