Luxurious buildings in the location of factory - Israeli company to invest 100m EUR in Belgrade

Construction of an exclusive residential-business complex at total of 90,000 square meters in the lot of Industry of rolling bearings in Knez Danilova Street should start in about six months. Behind this project, worth 100m EUR, is Israeli company "Direct capital S".

The first phase of construction in the lot in Knez Danilova Street will be focused on development of residential complex. It will encompass four buildings with about 300 apartments. Each of them will have three elevators and spa center. In addition, the residential complex will also include sports contents, gym, shops, as well as special medical institution, while the future tenants will be protected 24 hours a day thanks to the hired security.

- Realization of the project should start in about six months, or one year at the latest. We have submitted the preliminary project and we are now waiting for permits, which we expect to receive soon, especially because special Department for large investors has been formed within the City Planning Secretariat, and I believe that that is going to accelerate complete procedure. Our estimates are that the realization of the project should be finished in three to five years – Sammy Gal, the Director General of company "Direct capital S", told "Blic".

Once the residential complex is finished, the works will commence on construction of a commercial-office space. The office space should occupy the surface of about 15,000 square meters, business suites will be built at about 10,000 square meters, while the hotel will cover the surface of about 5,000 square meters. About 30,000 square meters of underground garages, which will be at the disposal of both tenants and users of office space, will be built underneath the entire complex.

- That part of the complex will be built in the last phase. There can be some changes concerning the size of office space because the current interest in it is rather small. The intensity of the crisis in the West is dropping, and it seems that the crisis is only about to start here. We will see how the situation is going to look like at the moment when we start construction of commercial space, and we will then decide, for example, if the hotel is going to have larger surface. When it comes to residential complex, I do not believe that there is going to be any problems, says Gal.

This will be the first project of "Direct capital S" in Belgrade. This company successfully operates in Germany, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, India and Lithuania. However, they are well-informed on the current situation in Serbian market since they receive the information from their new owners in the company's headquarters in Israel, who have already done some business in Belgrade.

"Intrusions" of the property

Sammy Gal says that the displaced Roma people have been frequently "intruding" on the lot in Knez Danilova Street over the last few days.

- We are spending great amount of money to secure our land because of illegal settling of Roma people. The police help us, but they do not have big authorizations either. They can only prevent them from entering the lot, while they are unable to throw them out of the property. On the other hand, the City does not react at all - says Gal.

(Note: complete text is taken over from newspaper "Blic" of August 26, 2009)