The Guardian: Trump family to transform Albania’s island into ultra-luxury resort

Sazani is a small island near the Ionian coast of Albania, boasting a fantastic landscape with diverse plants such as lavender, rosemary, and laurel, writes Marzio Mian for the British newspaper The Guardian.

The view from the summit, with its dramatic sunset, is breathtaking, CE Report quotes ATA.

Following news that the Trump family plans a stunning tourism investment there, Albanians have already dubbed Sazani the "Trump Island."

Until now largely untouched by development, Sazani is set to become an ultra-luxury island resort — another addition to the rich real estate portfolio of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

Speaking on the Lex Fridman podcast in July 2024, Trump barely hid her excitement, saying, "I’m working with my husband, we now have this 566-hectare island in the Mediterranean, and we’re bringing in the best architects and top brands. It will be extraordinary."

Kushner expressed enthusiasm about discovering Sazani, which he seemed to regard as a treasure. He said he plans to create the ideal resort where he would want to be with family and friends.

"Before visiting the island, I was amazed by the idea of hiking its approximately 60 kilometers of trails, climbing the forested mountains, and exploring the deep waterways with names like Paradise Bay, Hell Gorge, Devil’s Bay, and Admiral’s Beach. I wanted to see it before the phrase ‘going to Sazan’ becomes a privilege only for the wealthy," he added.

Upon arriving there on a clear day in July 2024, I discovered the island is not suitable for getting lost: it is covered with signs depicting skulls and crossbones warning of land mines.

My guide, Arbër Çelaj, a lieutenant commander in the Albanian navy, stopped me from going too far. He did not want to be reprimanded by his superiors.

Sazani lies between the Adriatic and Ionian seas, strategically positioned at the entrance to the Bay of Vlorë, in the Strait of Otranto that separates Italy from Albania.

The climate on Sazani is not Mediterranean but subtropical, evident in its vegetation and biodiversity.

Indeed, the shrubs look like something out of Spielberg’s computer-generated imagery, forming a jungle with giant ash, cornel, maritime pine, and oak trees.

Kushner was also speechless when he first saw the island in 2021.

“I was very surprised that something like this existed in the middle of the Mediterranean and had not been developed,” he emphasized.

Preliminary approval from the Albanian government for Kushner’s project came on December 30, 2024.

Interestingly, Sazani’s environment owes much to communism. During the communist era from 1946 to 1991, Albania was known as the North Korea of Europe, and Sazani became a symbol of extreme isolation: an impenetrable military fortress that dictator Enver Hoxha imagined could help protect the country from a NATO or Warsaw Pact invasion.

For decades, soldiers stationed on the island awaited such an attack, scanning the horizon and listening for a submarine emerging from the depths of the Adriatic.

The island hosted a military base with living quarters, a theater, a school, and a hospital.

Until the 1970s, about 150 military families lived on the island without contact with the mainland.

Walking along a trail with my guide, we came across several bomb shelters and tunnels designed to store supplies and ammunition or serve as hideouts during guerrilla warfare against invaders.

Çelaj told me there are about 13 kilometers of tunnels, now mostly inhabited by bats, polecats, and wild rabbits.

There are around 3,600 bunkers on Sazani—armored concrete mushrooms emerging from vegetation or perched on mountain peaks as lookout points against phantom American aircraft carriers or Soviet frigates.

“Some will be preserved and integrated into the new real estate project,” Kushner said.

“This place is full of unexploded ammunition left over from the 1990s when thieves attacked the island right under the army’s nose, looting arms and ammunition depots. The enemy finally arrived, but with small improvised boats and speaking the same language as the soldiers,” Çelaj noted.

Today, the island is controlled by the Albanian army. It is patrolled by three sailors who walk around the rusty, ruined ports of St. Nicholas Bay, where the company "Affinity" will build its main yacht marina.

Albania has risen to the top of some of the most prestigious tourism rankings in recent years, largely thanks to Prime Minister Edi Rama, who has transformed the country into a "Balkan economic tiger."

I asked Rama if he was worried about political complications from the new real estate project, but he said, "My country cannot afford not to exploit a gift like Sazani."

“We need luxury tourism like a desert needs water,” Rama added.

He is not afraid to spark controversy, especially “if it helps attract attention and generate investments.”

Rama has been “a great partner” and very far-sighted, according to Kushner.

“The government clearly understands this could be serious. We are building an airport right there in the Vlorë area,” Rama told Kushner last summer.

Albania is not Kushner’s only target: he is also interested in Serbia, where Affinity Partners plans to transform the former Ministry of Defense building in Belgrade into a luxury hotel.

Affinity’s regional business intermediary is former U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell, who served as Trump’s special envoy for Serbia-Kosovo peace talks between 2019 and 2021.

According to the New York Times, while special envoy, Grenell pushed a similar plan for Serbia and the U.S. to jointly rebuild the former Ministry of Defense.

Since then, he has joined Kushner in the new development deal and is now a partner at Affinity.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić saw Grenell and Kushner as an opportunity to get closer to Trump if he wins reelection, according to the Financial Times.

Vučić is playing a risky game: besides gaining favor with Trump’s supporters, he has refused to impose sanctions on Russia since it invaded Ukraine.

In May 2024, he rolled out the red carpet for Chinese leader Xi Jinping, whose government has heavily invested in new infrastructure in Serbia, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, Vučić continues to express his desire to join the EU but refuses to fulfill Brussels’ main condition: recognizing Kosovo’s borders and independence.

“When I spoke with Rama, the Albanian prime minister, I asked what role American investments play in geopolitics. He said it was simply business but did not deny it could advance a broader political strategy,” Grenell noted.

“We have to keep Serbia in the Western sphere and pull it out of Moscow’s grip,” he added.

In a July 2024 interview with the Financial Times, Grenell also said that “investments like the real estate deal to buy the former Ministry of Defense aim to bring Serbia closer to the United States.”

Kushner, who served as a senior adviser to Trump from 2017 to 2021, denied using his position to promote the Sazani development plans during our July 2024 conversation.

“I never met Prime Minister Rama when I was in government. But even if I met him, it’s not a conflict of interest. People in government build various relationships,” Kushner emphasized.

He said interest in Serbia and Albania was growing extraordinarily thanks to his company’s real estate deals.

Mirela Kumbaro, Albania’s Minister of Tourism and Environment, defended Rama’s decision to make a deal with Kushner’s company, which has faced sharp criticism from the opposition.

“We cannot compete with Italy, Croatia, and Greece in mass tourism. We don’t have the infrastructure or enough experience. We must focus on quality. Value, not volume. More profit and fewer headaches,” she added.

Nearly 12 million foreign visitors visited Albania in 2024, 15 percent more than the previous year, according to local media.

“Sazani is the way to go. The ideal recipe: natural and luxury tourism,” she said, adding she was enthusiastic about the project and working closely with the government agency responsible for strategic investments or those exceeding 15 million euros.

“The compromise is considerable: zero taxes during construction and the state takes care of all infrastructure, including water, electricity, and sewage,” Kumbaro added.

This is exactly what worries environmentalists like Olsi Nika, a marine biologist and director of the NGO EcoAlbania.

“This area is in the Karaburun-Sazan Marine National Park. This means that beaches and waters within two kilometers of the coast are protected. What will happen to this place with major public works, pier construction, yacht traffic, and wastewater discharges?” he stressed.

Affinity hired Arup, a global sustainability firm, to advise on the project, and their business focuses heavily on improving and respecting the local ecology and environment.

“When you announce a project, everyone is scared. Everyone thinks the worst. But once they see our projects, how we design them, how we stay true and respectful to the environment around us, I think people will be very, very satisfied. And still, with projects, you can’t please everyone,” he said in July 2024.

“When I met Abehsera for lunch in Vlorë in August 2024, he gave me a preview of the island’s development plans.

“The hotel,” he said, “will be a jewel in the Mediterranean.”

“The hotel design will not impose on nature; the buildings will be carved or even ‘carved out’ by nature. They will have the feeling of being placed in a beautiful tree,” Kushner emphasized.

“We are creating a very high-level luxury product. One of the island’s wonderful things is privacy… But I also think there are some aspects of the island we can develop to give people the opportunity to come and visit and enjoy some of the food and trails,” Kushner said.

I reflected on my afternoon with Çelaj. He told me that until a few years ago, soldiers on patrol sometimes reported seeing a small gray donkey among the wild fig trees in Hell Gorge.

Then it simply vanished.

I wondered if it was just a legend or if the gray donkey had died along with the mystery of the island, the last bastion of wild nature in the Mediterranean, conquered, after all, without a single shot fired.

It just took Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner to land by helicopter and say, “Wow!”