Belgrade on water, Serbia at work - Project aimed at expanding capital city to rivers to create 20,000 jobs, first building designed by Serbian engineers

With the cornerstone for two residential towers, on Sunday, September 27,construction of the Belgrade Waterfront project totaling EUR 3,5 billion has officially started.

Cornerstone was placed by the Prime Minister of the Government of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic and the GM at Eagle hills, Mohamed Al Abbar.

Two residential towers will have 296 flats on 60.000 m2, and the sale of flats on the basis of the registration of interested ones for purchase will start October 3 when price per square meter and size of apartments will be known. The offer comprises one-room, two-room, three-room and four-room flats of different design and content and they will have spacious terraces, gardens and a view of the Sava and promenade.

According to city authorities, some 6.500 buyers have already registered for flats and the deadline for towers completion is two and a half years.

Local companies will participate in their construction and, so far, contracts with local companies Novkol, PMC and Masinoprojekt have been signed.

The project will end in early 2018 and we have also been working on development of other projects from the first stage where I would single out Tower Belgrade, regional shopping mall and completion of the Sava promenade, the head of the Beograd na vodi company, Nikola Nedeljkovic, said and added that it was expected to happen in the next four years.

Designs for the first building within the Belgrade Waterfront complex were prepared by the Serbian company Masinoprojekt, while cleaning of the Sava amphitheater and placing of concrete elements was entrusted to local construction companies. Energoprojekt is the main contractor.

Thirty architects and engineers worked on design of the first building of Belgrade Waterfront for six years. As they say, it was a great challenge to include in the planning documentation everything the Arabian investor imagined.

Producers of construction materials, which now operate at 40% of their capacity, see this project as a chance to exit the crisis.

- We insisted on using our construction materials for the project. We expect all construction companies initially listed as potential contractors for Belgrade Waterfront to be hired – Viktor Kobjerski from the SCC Construction Board told RTS.

The land where Belgrade Waterfront will be built was rented to an investor for a period of 99 years and Serbia, instead of the rent, got a 32% stake in the Beograd na vodi company.

At least 50% of project must be completed in the next 20 years and the deadline for project completion is the year 2045.

The first A stage will see the construction of six facilities on 300,000 m2 and the investment totals EUR 300 m.

We will get the most luxurious hotel in Serbia as well

When it comes to first facilities which will be built within the project, a contract has already been signed with renowned W hotel chain to build a a five plus-star hotel within Belgrade Waterfront.

The hotel construction will start in the first quarter next year, and it will run parallel to the construction of business building, big tower and a shopping mall.

Construction in the second stage includes the development of remaining 1,7 m square meters, business and residential and commercial space.

Belgrade to attract more visitors than Budapest, but who owns the land?

The investor which will build Belgrade Waterfront does not own the land until it builds certain facility, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic reiterated and added that they did not have anything to take away from Serbia.

Vucic said no one had the right to speak about the market value of "something which had zero value for 70 years".

Belgrade Waterfront, as the Prime Minister said, will generate GDP growth, employment rate increase and, in ten years, the capital of Serbia will be a tourist center attracting more visits than Budapest.