The Belgrade Tower is still without a use permit
Nov 7, 2025
Link to original article: https://forbes.n1info.rs/biznis/kula-beograd-i-dalje-bez-upotrebne-dozvole/
The Belgrade Tower, which was opened in the fall of last year, does not yet have a use permit, according to data in the Central Registry of Unified Procedures (CEOP). There is no request for that document in that register yet.
The last thing that can be seen when entering the plot 1508/411 on which the Tower is located in that register is that on October 27 of this year, the Ministry of Construction, Communications and Infrastructure approved the request submitted by the company BW Tower, which concerns the submitted documentation regarding fire protection measures.
Apart from the fact that the request refers to the two plots 1508/353 and 1508/411 (on which the Tower is located), there is no additional data or accompanying document to which the adopted documentation refers.
The company Beograd na vodi d.o.o. does not answer Forbes Serbia’s questions about why BW Tower, as an investor, has not yet obtained a use permit for Beograd Tower. They do not even answer the question of what the documentation regarding fire protection measures, which was recently adopted, refers to.
Namely, during the previous years, CEOP rejected and then adopted several requests regarding documentation for fire protection measures.
Some of the requests were submitted by BW Kula independently, such as this last request, while some were submitted together with Elektrodistribucija Srbije (EDS).
Ten years of building the Tower
The location conditions for the phased construction of the Kula Beograd building on plot 1508/411 in Savski Venec were issued almost 10 years ago, in May 2016.
The location conditions were issued to the company Beograd na vodi doo
They defined that a part of the building will be a five-star hotel, a part will be used for housing, a part for bars and shops, a part for a garage and a lookout point.
Specifically, the Belgrade Tower is planned with two underground floors, a ground floor and 40 floors. It is 168 meters high in total.
The location conditions predicted the phasing of the construction.
The first phase included piles for the Tower. The second phase referred to the Belgrade Tower itself.
In 2016, two construction permits were issued to Belgrade on the water for works on the construction of piles.
One related to piles in the plateau part of the Kula Beograd building. Those works were worth 178 million dinars. The second permit related to the construction of tower piles and the podium of the Belgrade Tower building, and the works, according to that permit, were worth 176 million dinars.
After issuing these two permits, the investor of Belgrade Tower was changed. Instead of the company Beograd na voda, the investor became the company BW Kula.
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Luxury hotel and apartments
The construction permit for the Belgrade Tower itself was issued in February 2019. That permit was obtained by the company BW Kula doo. The value of the work on the Belgrade Tower was 12 billion dinars.
According to that document, commercial and hotel facilities are on the level of the podium and the first floor and from the 2nd to the 10th floor.
Residential buildings are from the 12th to the 37th floor. There are technical rooms on the 11th and 40th floors. And on the 38th and 39th floors are a restaurant and an observation deck. Two underground levels are garages.
This permit was changed three times, the last time in May 2024.
One of the changes to the permit, the one from 2022, provided for a pedestrian walkway that connects the Kula Belgrade building with the Galerija Shopping Center in order to allow visitors to the shopping center access to the observation deck located on the 39th floor of the Tower and the panoramic restaurant on the 38th floor. That change provided for the introduction of the lighting system for the facade of the Tower and, in connection with that, the server room on the underground floor.
BW Kula is majority owned by Eagle Hills, a smaller part is owned by Serbia
The owners of the company BW Kula doo are the company Eagle Hills Waterfront Investment LLC from the United Arab Emirates with a 67 percent share, and the Government of Serbia with a 33 percent share.
The company BW Kula is engaged in the development of the Kula Belgrade project. The project includes the development and construction of a residential-hotel building with a height of 168 meters and 42 floors, according to the company’s 2024 business report.
The Kula Belgrade project has 220 branded apartments “The Residences at The St. Regis Belgrade” and the hotel “The St. Regis Belgrade” from the portfolio of the Marriott International hotel and residence chain.
At the top there is also a viewpoint with a 360-degree view of the entire capital, the report says.
Hotel The St. Regis Belgrade with a total of 119 hotel rooms is set to open in 2024, according to the business report.
In that document, it is also stated that the modernly designed plateau – Kula Plaza – at the foot of the Belgrade Tower will be a new place for the city’s events and “the most important cultural and artistic events”.
Business with a loss
BW Kula achieved business income of 3.55 billion dinars in 2024. Its business expenses were higher and amounted to 4.35 billion dinars.
When all costs and earnings of this company are included, it ended 2024 with a net loss of 962.9 million dinars.
In November 2023, BW Kula founded the branch “BW Kula doo Belgrade Branch The St.Regis Belgrade, whose activity is hotels and similar accommodation. And in the summer of 2024, the branch “BW Kula doo Belgrade – Branch Deck 41″ for the activity of restaurants and mobile catering facilities.
This branch then changed its name to “BW Kula doo Beograd – Deck 360 Branch”, with a new activity code of “other retail trade in non-specialized stores”.
| Questions for Marriott We sent questions related to obtaining a use permit to the hotel chain Marriott. We were interested in what they knew about the process of obtaining this certificate. That is, do they know why the facility where the hotel is located does not have a use permit and whether the investor has informed them about the measures he is taking to obtain it. Also, we wanted to check if this could be a reason for the eventual withdrawal of the franchise for the hotel. However, our questions were not answered. IR |