A bankruptcy buyout for a project worth more than €400m
In March 2024, Millennium Team, a Serbian construction group, took over Danube Riverside, a bankrupt Belgrade company that owned the iconic Hotel Jugoslavija. The acquisition was made through its vehicle MV Investment, which already co-owned with Danube Riverside the 45,613 sq m plot surrounding the property on the banks of the Danube.
Serbia’s Bankruptcy Supervision Agency had set the starting price at RSD 3.18bn, or around €25.6m at the exchange rate of the time. This was half the estimated value of Danube Riverside, appraised at RSD 6.35bn. According to the local press, MV Investment was the sole bidder and acquired the assets at the starting price.
In its press release, the group said that, with an initial investment of more than €42m, it had completed the acquisition of the entire former Hotel Jugoslavija site. It announced an amendment to the detailed regulation plan in order to build a residential and commercial complex with a high-end hotel. Planned investment exceeded €400m over four years.
From Yugoslav symbol to derelict site
Opened in 1969 on the banks of the Danube, Hotel Jugoslavija had 476 rooms, including seven suites. For decades it was the showcase of prestige hospitality in socialist Yugoslavia. In 1999, NATO bombing partly destroyed it. It was subsequently privatised and closed in 2006, partially reopened in 2013 and closed for good in 2024.
The Commercial Court in Belgrade opened bankruptcy proceedings against Danube Riverside in November 2021, and the company was declared bankrupt in May 2022. As the building had been removed from the list of properties under preliminary protection as early as 2011, it could be demolished.
Demolition began on 15 November 2024, despite opposition from local residents and Serbian architects. The hotel was finally razed to the ground in January 2025.
The Ritz-Carlton gamble
On 27 November 2024, Danube Riverside signed an agreement with Marriott International to bring The Ritz-Carlton to Belgrade, a first for the brand in Serbia. The ceremony took place at The St. Regis Belgrade in the presence of Finance Minister Siniša Mali. La Tribune de l’Hôtellerie reported on the project at the time, with opening then scheduled for 2027.
The future hotel is expected to feature 193 rooms and suites, a Ritz-Carlton Club, two restaurants, a spa, an indoor pool and more than 1,700 sq m of meeting space. It is designed as the centrepiece of a development comprising residential and office towers, a convention centre, a marina and a promenade.
At the time, Ivan Bošnjak, director of Millennium Team and representative of Danube Riverside, said the company was honoured to be working with Marriott International to introduce The Ritz-Carlton brand, which he described as a global symbol of luxury and quality, to Serbia. Total investment was by then put at nearly €500m.
In January 2026, the outlet Nova ekonomija revealed, in a report picked up by the Beta news agency, that Danube Riverside had secured a €30m state subsidy to build and fit out the Ritz-Carlton.
Arrest warrants and a procedural battle
The Third Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade had opened an investigation and, on its orders, building inspectors had visited the site. On 10 November 2026, it handed police a written order to locate and arrest Stojan Vujko and Ivan Bošnjak, co-owners and executives of Millennium Team, as well as Andreja Đulić, director of Danube Riverside. They are suspected of construction without a building permit, an offence under Article 219a of the Serbian Criminal Code.
According to the prosecutor’s office, police were initially slow to act and demanded a written order. The three men were then taken to a police station to be served with a custody order. Their lawyers argued that motions for recusal had been filed that same day with the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade. These target the prosecutor handling the case, the chief prosecutor of the Third Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office and two court-appointed experts. The law requires proceedings to be suspended until these motions have been decided.
According to reports in the Serbian press, the Third Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office considered it unacceptable that the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office had postponed receipt of the case file until 12 November, citing the 11 November public holiday, and asked it to rule without delay. It maintains that the defence has since supplemented its recusal motion in order to delay proceedings further. The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, for its part, says no statutory deadline applies but that it will rule as quickly as possible.
Permit rejected, timetable in jeopardy
On the same day, 10 November, the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure rejected Danube Riverside’s permit application for the first phase of the complex on the grounds that the file was incomplete. This phase includes a nine-storey hotel, retail space and an underground car park. According to the published decision, the application does not meet the formal requirements: incomplete and non-compliant documentation, missing approvals and no utility connection contracts.
Local residents had reported that works were under way without authorisation. The outlet Nova now describes a site left as it stands, with idle machinery and unfinished earthworks.
Analysis – With no permit and its executives facing criminal proceedings, the project can no longer keep to the announced 2027 opening date for The Ritz-Carlton, Belgrade. For Marriott, the issue is now the legal certainty of a contract tied to an asset that is both highly exposed politically and state-subsidised. The Belgrade context calls for caution: in January 2026, another branded luxury complex, planned in the former Yugoslav Army General Staff headquarters, was abandoned after senior culture officials were indicted. Millennium Team, for its part, sued an N1 journalist in March 2026 over an article about the Jugoslavija acquisition.
At a glance by The Hospitality Tribune
Former Hotel Jugoslavija, Belgrade – Millennium Team under criminal investigation
March 2024: Millennium Team acquired bankrupt Danube Riverside, owner of the Hotel Jugoslavija site, at a starting price of RSD 3.18bn
Planned investment: over €400m, later put at nearly €500m, for a mixed-use complex anchored by The Ritz-Carlton, Belgrade (193 keys, opening announced for 2027)
The hotel was demolished in January 2025, and a €30m state subsidy was granted for the Ritz-Carlton in January 2026
10 November 2026: arrest warrants issued for Millennium Team co-owners and the Danube Riverside director over suspected construction without a permit
The same day, the Ministry of Construction rejected the phase-one building permit application as incomplete
