'Kushner Island': a luxury resort in a protected Albanian nature reserve, fast-tracked by the government

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are planning luxury hotels, apartments and villas on Sazan, a former military island off Albania's Adriatic coast, and at Zvërnec on the nearby mainland. Both sites sit in or next to the Vjosa-Narta protected area, a wetland important to migratory birds, including flamingos. Forbes and Al Jazeera put the Sazan project at about $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion, with the wider development valued at about $4.7 billion.

In February 2024 Albania's parliament passed a law easing construction limits in protected areas, and that December the government granted strategic-investor status to Atlantic Incubation Partners, a company tied to Kushner's Affinity Partners. The status speeds approvals, sidesteps the usual public tender process, and comes with a 10-year tax exemption during construction. Affinity's money comes largely from Saudi, Qatari and Emirati government funds. Albanian anti-corruption prosecutors are investigating the 2024 changes.

More than 40 environmental groups asked for the project to be suspended. Protests grew in spring 2026, and in June thousands demonstrated after bulldozers arrived, chanting that the nation is not for sale; Forbes reported private guards forcibly removed protesters. Kushner has been a U.S. peace envoy since February 2026.