The story reads like something out of a travel brochure. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were vacationing on a friend’s boat in the Adriatic Sea years ago when they decided to stop for a swim. They ended up on Sazan, an uninhabited island off Albania’s coast. She described it later as a transcendent moment: hiking barefoot to the top of the island, captivated by what they saw.
That memory clearly stuck with them. What started as a romantic detour has now exploded into one of the most controversial development battles in Albania’s recent history.
According to NPR’s reporting, the couple’s vision has evolved into plans for a luxury resort along a stretch of Albanian coastline directly across from Sazan Island. The Albanian government has already given the project preliminary approval. The result? Daily protests outside Prime Minister Edi Rama’s office in Tirana, with thousands flooding the streets demanding the project be scrapped.
It’s a fascinating collision of personal ambition, geopolitical positioning, and environmental alarm. And it’s far from over.
The Dream Meets Local Resistance
The proposed development site sits at Zvérnec, a coastal area directly across from Sazan Island. It’s a strip of beach and cliffs that protects an inland lagoon, and it’s become ground zero for what critics call a giveaway of Albanian natural heritage.
“They started closing off a national area to the public and bringing in big trucks to build in a protected zone,” said Eden Hosha, a protester NPR spoke with. “Hundreds of bird species nest here in winter.”
The protests have quickly shifted from opposition to the specific project to something much broader: a public no-confidence vote in the Albanian government itself. Chants of “Edi Rama out!” have become routine. Thousands now flood the capital’s streets, accusing the prime minister of selling off public resources.
“We’re tired of these guys stealing from us,” Hosha said. “Stealing our resources. Selling things that aren’t theirs to sell.”
This isn’t a niche environmental complaint anymore. It’s become a lightning rod for deeper grievances about corruption and who gets to decide the future of a country that’s still one of Europe’s poorest.
What Exactly Is Being Built?
Ivanka Trump has been remarkably public about the project. In a podcast interview with David Senra, she described both plots of land as belonging to her and Kushner. “Not only the island, but we have five miles of beachfront directly across from the island,” she said. “This beautiful peninsula with a lagoon on one side, the ocean on the other, and beautiful white sand beaches.”
The rhetoric sounds responsible enough. She framed it as a chance to realize the land’s potential “with restraint and care” for the environment.
But ornithologists on the ground see something entirely different. Taulant Bino, head of the Albanian Ornithological Society, has identified over 250 bird species in the Narte Lagoon area. He says what they’re planning would be devastating.
“What we see from the project ideas are tall buildings,” Bino told NPR. “Up to 10,000 rooms. This is a new city, not an environmental project.”
The area is part of a protected ecological network called Vjose-Narte, which includes salt flats that serve as critical breeding grounds for migratory birds. Construction access roads are already being pushed through during breeding season, which conservationists say is already causing damage.
A coalition of environmental organizations has filed legal challenges arguing the project violates both Albanian law and international treaties, including the EU’s Natura 2000 network. Albania, as an official EU candidate country, is supposed to be bound by these protections.
Here’s the wrinkle: in 2024, Prime Minister Rama pushed through a new law that stripped away protection for this exact ecosystem, clearing the way for five-star hotels. Albanian lawyer Dorian Matlija, representing the environmental groups, says the legislation violates both domestic and EU law. “This endangers our longtime dream of joining the EU,” he noted.
The Money Trail Gets Messy
Adding to the controversy, there’s a separate investigation unfolding. On June 2, Albanian anti-corruption prosecutors froze the bank accounts of a firm that purchased land along this coastline. It’s part of an investigation into fraudulent property titles, and the company in question is owned by Qatari brothers Moutaz and Ramez Al-Khayyat, who are helping finance the Kushner-Trump project.
Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, told NPR it has no role in the project. A representative said partners are involved “in their personal capacity.”
But tracing exactly who owns what has proven difficult. Albanian investigative journalist Lindita Cela has been tracking a web of shell companies stretching from Albania to the Netherlands. “You see one company, and you’ll see that ‘who owns this company?’ and it’s another company,” she explained. “You just need to keep digging, digging, digging.”
Several shell companies share the same address in Amsterdam and are each worth a single euro on paper. The trail leads to a company called Interroyal BV, established with 18,000 euros by a Russian citizen and a Bulgarian citizen who, on paper at least, own hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Albanian property. Neither individual has a public profile.
Transparency this is not.
Why This Matters Beyond Albania
The project has become a test case for what kind of development Albania wants as it inches toward EU membership. Albi Batozi, a 34-year-old software engineer who grew up swimming at Zvérnec, was among the protesters. “I don’t want anyone to build here because this is our land,” he said. “Public land is for everybody, not for just the small 1%.”
He’s frustrated that Rama seems obsessed with luxury resort projects while Albania struggles with poverty andInfrastructure. “Albania is like a studio apartment that barely holds place for Albanians. Where do we put these visitors? It’s not that we can afford to build these big resorts like in Greece.”
If the resort goes forward, it’ll mean a stretch of coastline that was once accessible to all Albanians gets walled off for wealthy tourists. That symbolic loss may end up mattering as much as the environmental damage.
The prime minister’s office did respond to NPR, saying the government understands “major investments can generate public debate” and that the ambition is “to create a new benchmark for sustainable Mediterranean development.”
Whether anyone believes that is another story entirely.
For more on how international business interests intersect with local communities and politics, check out our coverage of Business and politics around the world.
What’s clear is that this story is less about a resort and more about who gets to shape a country’s future. The swim that captivated Ivanka Trump years ago has become a battle over Albania’s soul.
