The deal was expected to include 10,000 hotel rooms, with construction costs estimated at $1.6 billion.
Albanians are protesting against the construction of a large resort on the uninhabited island of Sazan in the Adriatic Sea. The project is financed by Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. Environmentalists and dissatisfied citizens oppose the construction, arguing that it will destroy a unique nature reserve that is home to many endangered species, such as flamingos and Mediterranean monk seals. Details are in the Forbes photo gallery. Protests erupted in late May when concrete fences topped with barbed wire appeared on the construction site, blocking access to the beach, and security personnel arrived as heavy machinery began to clear pine forests to create access roads. Following the protests, the Albanian authorities dismissed the head of the local police and revoked the licenses of two private security companies; protesters demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, while the police used water cannons against the demonstrators during the protests.
The Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of Albania (SPAK) has launched an investigation into the resort construction project and changes in the status of the Vjosa-Narta protected area on Albania's Adriatic coast. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who promised that the country would join the European Union by 2030 after winning the elections in 2025, stated that he "wants to make Albania a country to be envied in the region, and this project is part of those efforts," as it will create jobs and attract investments. He denies that the construction project will threaten the protected wildlife reserve, claiming that the environmental assessment is not yet complete.
The plans for the construction of a massive resort in the Vjosa-Narta protected area on Albania's Adriatic coast were presented by Jared Kushner's investment company Affinity Partners in August 2024. The deal is expected to include 10,000 hotel rooms, with construction costs estimated at $1.6 billion. In January 2026, Kushner's wife and daughter of U.S. President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, made an unexpected visit to Albania with a team of architects to inspect the site designated for development. It includes the uninhabited island of Sazan — the largest island in Albania — and several hundred hectares of protected landscape. According to BirdLife International, more than 200 bird species inhabit the area, many of which are endangered, including flamingos and Dalmatian pelicans, as well as Mediterranean monk seals — some of the rarest pinnipeds in the world, with no more than 600 individuals remaining.
The Zvërnec Bay in the Vjosa-Narta protected area. Environmentalists oppose the construction of the resort in this location, claiming it will affect several hundred hectares of untouched beaches and harm wildlife.
In 2025, Kushner's company Affinity Partners abandoned a large-scale project to build a Trump Tower hotel on the site of the General Staff building in Belgrade, which was destroyed during the bombing of the Serbian capital in 1999. This occurred after disagreements over the project and investigations by local anti-corruption authorities.
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