The company WD Concord West doo, co-owned by businessman and president of the Red Star Basketball Club Željko Drčelić, will build a shelter for adults and the elderly in Kumodraška Street, Belgrade. Concord West, together with the companies Terming electronics doo, Elektrozapad, Premer Savković doo, Preduzeće za production promet i servije Frenki-alarm doo, and ConnectIT doo., will construct this facility in Voždovac.
The Secretariat for Investments awarded the contract to this group of contractors, and the value of the contract without VAT is 963.6 million dinars, with VAT totaling 1.15 billion dinars.
Based on the technical documentation from the tender related to the new Reception Center, the planned facility should cover approximately 3,500 square meters and include a basement, ground floor, and three additional floors.
For expert supervision of the works on the new Reception area, the City entrusted a group of bidders consisting of the entrepreneurial shops Projektni Biro Grad Put, led by Dragoslav Ćirić, and the office for design and engineering activities Sinprojekt, led by Nebojša Ćirić. These two companies were given 25 million dinars excluding VAT for supervising the works.
According to the documentation concerning these public procurements, it is planned to demolish the existing Shelter in Kumodraška and build a new one in its place. The reason for this is the increased need for accommodation facilities and improvement of living conditions for the users of this social protection institution.
Based on the documentation, the City of Belgrade will receive a newly built facility with 142 beds for housing people experiencing homelessness.
What is the condition of the existing facility?
Based on an expert analysis and opinion stated in the documentation, the existing facility of the Shelter for Adults and Old Persons at Kumodraška Street 226a is structurally stable but only for the load for which it was originally designed and constructed.
The expert’s opinion states that the building has non-reinforced foundations of small width and weak bearing capacity, so no additional loads should be applied under any circumstances.
Adding two more floors would exceed the bearing capacity of the soil, which could cause the soil under the building to break, resulting in deformations, uneven settling, and cracking of the building.
Therefore, the expert concluded that it is not possible to upgrade the existing structure, and demolition is necessary.
It would be good news that Belgrade will get a new, larger, and more modern shelter adapted to the users if the documentation did not mention that the existing one will be demolished. Questions remain about whether this will actually happen and where the current users will be accommodated during construction.
What is Concord West building?
WD Concord West doo is owned 50 percent by Željko Drčelić, and the other 50 percent is owned by the company RAIMS Development.
According to media reports, WD Concord West is part of a consortium with several other companies engaged in the construction of the residential complex E2 as part of the EXPO 2027 project.
The company was also involved in constructing football stadiums in Zaječar, Leskovac, and Loznica, for which a total of 11.8 billion dinars were spent, as previously reported by Nova ekonomija.
WD Concord West is engaged in the construction of the Tiršova 2 children’s clinic, the Neurosurgery Clinic of the Clinical Center of Serbia, as well as reconstruction, renovation, extension, and repurposing of several other facilities including the Museum of the City of Belgrade, the Radnički sports center in Zvezdara, and a daycare center for developmentally disabled children and youth in Barajevo.
Additionally, Concord West owns a third of the company Vrenje, which purchased the Stara Šećerana complex.
