Ljubljana city councillors will soon decide on a major new investment by Janković’s friend from Republika Srpska. Mladen Milanović, or his company MG Mind, is planning to build a new residential neighbourhood on Litijska Street in Ljubljana.
The rather large-scale project, 372 flats, will be built by KPL Ljubljana, a company owned by MG Mind. Councillors are expected to approve the construction, or the municipal detailed spatial plan in the area of the former Rast gardening centre, on the 23rd of June, reports the newspaper Finance.
Based on the composition of the city council, the city councillors are expected to approve the construction first, after which the investor will have to obtain a building permit. The newspaper Finance reported on the planned project back in 2021, when the project consisted of 330 apartments, and then the scope of construction was increased by another 40 apartments.
The provision for a preliminary archaeological exploration has been removed from the municipal detailed spatial plan
Milanović plans to build six office and retail buildings with two floors in the northern part along Litijska Street, and eight residential buildings or apartment buildings, also with two floors and terraces, in the southern part. The neighbourhood will also have an underground car park and children’s play areas in front of the apartment buildings. The project is expected to start with the construction of the commercial and residential part.
The current municipal spatial plan does not foresee preliminary archaeological explorations, although a burial site has been discovered in the past in the vicinity of the proposed development. In 2015 already, during the construction of the sewer, workers discovered human skeletons, which archaeologists have dated to approximately the High Middle Ages (11th and 12th centuries), but they could also be much older, dating back to the 9th century, the newspaper Delo reports. KPL will have to protect the potential finds and inform the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage.
The project is also accompanied by some peripheral works, such as the development of a park along Litijska Street and the improvement of some of the road infrastructure in the vicinity.
Residents of the new apartment buildings could be left without healthcare
We asked Maruša Babnik, a Ljubljana city councillor from the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), for her comments. She pointed out that the project is backed by “a pet investor from the Municipality”, but said that there is a shortage of housing in Ljubljana and that this would be “market housing”. However, she stressed that the councillors’ group is concerned about the kindergarten infrastructure and, above all, about health care. “We see a big problem in healthcare, because the Ljubljana Health Centre does not offer the possibility to register with a general physician. While the document says that the new residents will find GPs in private practices with concessions, we know in which direction the health reform is moving. This is where we see a bigger problem,” she said, adding that she does not consider this type of investment as controversial as, for example, investments in non-profit housing that is being turned into ghettos because mostly people of foreign nationalities are moving in there.
She believes it would be wise to consider the Municipality of Ljubljana co-investing in the construction, as this could provide staff housing that could attract highly qualified individuals (such as doctors), as there is a short supply of such housing in the city. According to current plans, the municipality will only invest in the surrounding infrastructure.
She also commented on the fact that MG Mind has reappeared as an investor: “In all likelihood, “deals” will again be made that will enrich the Mayor of Ljubljana. It is not good to have the same investor all the time, as this can lead to monopolies, followed by monopoly prices.”
Janković’s court investor fleeing to Slovenia to escape sanctions?
We have written extensively in the past about Milanović, also known by his nickname “Kaja”, and his dealings in Slovenia. One of his most famous deals in Slovenia is certainly KPL (Komunalno podjetje Ljubljana – Public Utilities Company Ljubljana), the company Milanović bought in 2015 and which today holds the concession for the maintenance of Ljubljana’s road infrastructure. The company is also known for, among other things, having at one point been placed on the so-called “black list” by the World Bank on suspicion of corruption. The volume of business with the state on this account alone exceeded 400 million euros, according to data available in the Erar application for the portrayal of public money spending. In January 2024, it was also leaked that the businessman in question had bought the commercial part of the Stožice sports park for 25 million euros.
Milanović has been repeatedly described in the past as one of Dodik’s tycoons. He denied this in an interview with the Slovenian media, but it is hard to imagine that he could have done business on such a large scale in Republika Srpska if he had not been on good terms with the authorities. Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković, who in recent years has turned into a conduit for capital from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia to Slovenia, is certainly on good terms with Dodik.
And what could be behind the large inflow of capital from the above-mentioned areas to Slovenia? As the political commentator and expert on the situation in the Balkans, Miran Videtič jokingly suggested on his Facebook profile, we are witnessing a flight of capital from Republika Srpska in the face of possible sanctions. This is quite interesting, given that Slovenia has also threatened Dodik and his network with sanctions, and Dodik has announced retaliatory measures.
Ž. K.
