During the Cold War, quixotic Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha built some 750,000 concrete pillboxes to fend off a phantom invasion that never came. Yet Albania’s bunker-laden landscape may soon feature a pair of luxury resorts, at least if Jared Kushner has his way.The son-in-law of builder-in-chief President Donald Trump is pushing ahead on two developments of his own along the Mediterranean waterfront. Frustration with those projects, along with deeper issues of corruption and opaque governance, has sparked the largest popular uprising in Albania since the fall of communism.
What opportunity does Kushner see in Albania?
Protests in Albania began over two related developments backed by Kushner through his investment firm: a luxury resort on the largely undeveloped island of Sazan, a disused military base; and a larger tourism complex within the Vjosa-Narta wetlands, a protected ecological reserve.Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, visited Albania on a yacht trip in July 2021. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who met with the couple at the time, told Reuters that he found them to be “very nice, humble… humanly good people.” Kushner first scouted potential development sites during that trip.Kushner’s Albanian ambitions became public in March 2024, when he posted a series of renderings on his personal Instagram account. Those images featured sleek, low-slung villas with panoramic windows integrated into the Mediterranean cliffside.“We have this 1,400 acre island in the Mediterranean and we’re bringing in the best architects and the best brands,” Ivanka Trump, referring to Sazan island, said in a July 2024 interview. Trump went on to describe how the project would feature a luxe hotel managed by Aman Resorts and a food and beverage program from Manhattan staple Carbone.Albania’s Strategic Investment Committee expects the Mediterranean project to be worth 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion).How did an environmental protest become a political flashpoint?
