FINALLY Belgrade Waterfront cornerstone laid

FINALLY Belgrade Waterfront cornerstone laid

The construction of Belgrade Waterfront started on Sunday by laying the foundation stone for two residential towers in Belgrade downtown, on the River Sava.

The project is worth EUR 3.5 billion. The cornerstone was laid by Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and Mohamed Alabbar, the Director of Eagle Hills, the Abu-Dhabi based company that runs the project.

Companies from Serbia will also take part in the construction of the residential towers.

An agreement on the construction of a hotel within the Belgrade Waterfront has been signed with "W" hotel chain, and the implementation will start in the first quarter of 2016.

According to officials, all the risk in the construction of the Belgrade Waterfront was taken over by the investor, Eagle Hills.

The project agreement envisages that the land near the Belgrade fortress and the confluence of the Sava and Danube, on which Belgrade Waterfront will be built, is leased for 99 years, while the Serbian government got 32 percent stake in the Belgrade Waterfront company instead money from the fee.

At least 50 percent of the project has to be finished in the next 20 years, while the deadline for the completion of the entire project is 30 years.

Opposition Democratic Party (DS) and New Party (NS) organized a protest ahead of the ceremony, saying that the laying of the cornerstone was "the greatest scam in the history of the city and of the country."

They said there was "no Belgrade Waterfront - just the Progressives and their friends building a shopping mall, a hotel, and a tavern to serve their own interest, and not that of citizens."

DS official Balsa Bozovic announced that criminal...