Skip to content Skip to Search
Skip navigation

Eagle Hills plans Trump hotel project with Kushner

Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners and Eagle Hills have agreed to build a luxury hotel and apartment complex in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners and Eagle Hills have agreed to build a luxury hotel and apartment complex in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade
  • Trump hotel planned for Belgrade
  • By Eagle Hills and Affinity Partners
  • Alabbar cites ‘strong friendship’

The Abu Dhabi-based developer Eagle Hills and Affinity Partners, an investment firm founded by Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have agreed to build a luxury hotel and apartment complex in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade. 

The project, on the site of the former Yugoslav defence ministry, will feature a 175-room Trump hotel as its centrepiece, and 1,500 residences. Affinity has been granted a 99-year lease on the site.

“The Kushner family and I have shared a strong friendship spanning over a decade and this partnership represents an exciting milestone,” Mohamed Alabbar, chairman and founder of Eagle Hills, said in a statement to ABGI

“With our proven success in real estate, this collaboration marks the beginning of many promising ventures that will leverage our combined expertise and shared vision.”

Kushner said the decision to have a Trump-branded hotel in the project on a licence agreement came after a discussion with Eric Trump, his brother-in-law and executive vice-president of the Trump Organization. 

He said he hoped the Serbia project would be the “first of many projects” with Alabbar’s Eagle Hills. 

Filings with Abu Dhabi Global Market show the registration of a new special purpose vehicle called Atlantic Eagle Dhabi Partners Holding. 

Affinity Partners, formed after Kushner left the White House in 2021, after a term as the president’s adviser, has attracted investment from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. 

In December, it secured $1.5 billion from the Qatar Investment Authority and Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based alternative investment fund. Saudi’s Public Investment Fund also invested $2 billion in the company in 2022. 

Assets under management

Affinity’s assets under management increased to $4.6 billion after the most recent injection of funds last month. The Dubai-based Dubizzle Group and the Brazilian fast-food operator Zamp have been among Affinity’s early investments.

Eagle Hills has expanded its plans for its Belgrade Waterfront development, with a mixed-use tower being added to the project.  

The project, which started in 2015 with a $3 billion apartment complex on the banks of the River Sava in Serbia’s capital, has now expanded to exceed $12 billion in total real estate value, the developer said.

No details were revealed about the height of the planned tower. 

Eagle Hills has multi-billion-dollar projects in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa. 

In July, it signed an agreement with the Indonesian government to develop tourism assets worth $3 billion, and in March it agreed a $6 billion deal with the Hungarian government to transform a rundown area of Budapest.