The large tourist complexes that Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, plans to build on the island of Sazan and in the protected wetlands of Vjosa-Narta, near Zvernec on the Albanian Adriatic coast, will have to wait. Despite the support given by the Albanian Prime Minister, socialist Edi Rama, to a real estate project that aims to offer around 10,000 exclusive hotel rooms to the wealthiest tourists, the final decision depends on the resolution being prepared by the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecution Office of Albania (SPAK), an independent institution supported by the EU and the US to combat corruption cases involving the economic, political, and business elites of the country.
Meanwhile, thousands of people have been protesting in Tirana, the capital of the country, since early May to protest against a luxury resort tourism model in an area of great biodiversity, where sea turtles nest and species like seals and flamingos are present. Several NGOs have already warned that tree felling has begun in a protected pine forest and have accused the police of committing violent acts against some protesters last Sunday, as shown in images shared on social media. Environmental organizations demand the suspension of the projects, environmental protection of the area, and the resignations of both Edi Rama and Sali Berisha, the leader of the opposition, the two main figures in Albanian politics for decades. Protesters could be heard chanting slogans like "Albania is not for sale" or "Ivanka, go home."
In August 2024, Affinity Partners, the investment firm founded and led by Kushner, based in Miami, publicly presented the project, valued at approximately 1.4 billion euros, just as the Albanian government granted it the status of a strategic investor for the development of the island of Sazan. Earlier this year, Kushner visited the area with his wife Ivanka Trump and shortly after, Trump's son-in-law himself admitted that he discovered the island - a strategically located enclave where there was a military base during the communist regime of Enver Hoxa and is now used as a shooting range - thanks to his friend Nat Rothschild.
It was during a vacation on the yacht of the financier from the well-known banking dynasty, based in Switzerland, in the summer of 2021, and it was then that he met with the Albanian Prime Minister, who showed great enthusiasm for the project. However, due to citizen protests, Rama has had to acknowledge that there is currently no firm agreement in place, although last Monday, after another day of protests, he stated: "I want to make Albania a country that is an envied destination in the region, and this project is part of that effort." It is worth noting that Albania has already started negotiations for EU accession, scheduled for 2030, and that tourism accounts for 26% of its GDP.
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump disembarking from the US President's 'Air Force One' in Rome in an image from 2017.
For this project, Kushner, who is often tasked by the US President with diplomatic mediation in conflicts, has two Qatari partners, Moutaz and Ramez Al-Khayyat, who recently acquired several seaside plots in Zvernec, where the projected real estate complex has an estimated cost of over 4 billion euros.
If SPAK rules against the project, it would be Kushner's second setback in a short period. Due to the actions of the Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office in Serbia in 2025, Affinity Partners had to cancel a real estate development in Belgrade, valued at $500 million, which aimed to transform the ruins of the Yugoslav General Staff building, bombed by NATO in 1999, into a hotel and residential complex, with shops and even a museum.