A pristine paradise in the Adriatic, a "golden" investment of billions with the signature of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, and in the background, international drug rings, money laundering and a country on the verge of an uprising.
What started as a glamorous real estate project for VIP tourists in Albania, has turned into a financial thriller. As the Albanians rise up in the "Flamingo Revolution" to save their land, judicial authorities are dusting off property titles that smell of mafia, and experienced military personnel warn that the utopian plan of the Trump family risks blowing up, structurally and literally.
For two decades, this stretch of Albania's coast was a natural sanctuary cherished by migratory birds, one of the last pristine areas in the Adriatic.
Then, it caught the attention of real estate developers: Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, who saw it for the first time five years ago, while sailing nearby on a friend's yacht.
Now, a new road cuts through the pristine landscape. Flattened hills are littered with uprooted plants and broken branches. At least one large section of wetland has been drained and leveled, furrowed by truck tracks.
The Albanians worry that the flamingos could leave and never return.
The construction of the luxury residential complex started in May, triggering major protests in Albania's capital, Tirana, in what became known as the "Flamingo Revolution". The trigger was a video showing a local villager being violently removed from the recently fenced site by private security.
Since then, protesters have been present every night for nearly a month, shouting that Albania's land is not for sale. They also demand the resignation of Edi Rama, the country's prime minister. However, the latter supported a sudden amendment in 2024 that allows construction for tourism purposes in natural sanctuaries, provided that the project is "5 stars or higher".
Just fifteen days after the change, Kushner published blueprints of the project for the coastline of Zvërnec, online, showing constructions across the protected peninsula.
The, vision of 97 pages
According to the Financial Times, a 97-page "strategic vision plan" from November 2025 shows hotels, villas, and hundreds of apartments, commercial areas, a golf course, a water park, tennis courts, and a casino, more than 700,000 sq.m. of built surface and 70,000 sq.m. of "underground logistics infrastructure".
A part of the unique lagoon, which hosts thousands of flamingos and has been designated by an Albanian state agency as a "natural monument", is designated in the document for a marina and yacht club. The plan, prepared by the architectural firm Laboratory for Visionary Architecture, was posted online last month by a journalist, who did not respond to a request for comment.
A representative of the Laboratory for Visionary Architecture stated: "The document circulating was actually a draft study developed by our office as one of multiple studies done for the Sazan peninsula. As stated in the document itself".
The government of Rama stated that a master plan was examined and rejected, and that a new one is in the works, which will be subjected to an extensive environmental impact assessment.
The project's developers, an investment of about 2 billion euros by Kushner and his wife, along with the Kastrati Group in Albania and the Assets Group based in Qatar, which is managed by two billionaire brothers born in Syria, stated that "no conclusions should be drawn from isolated consultant competitions or preliminary design material". They insist that the project will respect the environment. But local residents and activists argue that this is impossible.
"They talk about environmental protection, but they are building a city", said Joni Vorpsi, from the NGO Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania.
"This is the wildest part of the Adriatic. This is where sea turtles breed. This is one of the most magical places we have, and there is already so much damage", Vorpsi told the FT during a tour of the area.
Following the outbreak of protests in Tirana, work seems to have stopped. No trucks, materials, or workers were visible at the site last week and the new fencing had been removed.
The European Parliament, which has a say in Albania's accession path, in mid-June called for a moratorium on all new construction projects and permits in the country's protected areas and urged that the "5 stars" amendment be repealed.
The mystery of Sazan island
Apart from the coastline project, the investors have also committed a similar amount for the development of another complex on Sazan, Albania's only island, right opposite the protected coastline and the lagoon.
In a recent podcast, Ivanka Trump described it as a "beautiful, private island in the middle of the Mediterranean, we were on a friend's boat and stopped for a swim, that's how we discovered it".
Although the development of the island has caused less concern to environmentalists, people familiar with the area say that any plans to exploit it are unrealistic.
The island is a small rocky islet without permanent residents. Its strategic position meant that it was used for a long time as a military base and is now littered with abandoned military camps, bunkers, and tunnels. Unexploded underwater mines pose another hazard.
"When the wind blows on the island, it can easily reach 60, 90, even over 100 km. per hour, we can barely stand upright. You have nowhere to hide", said Artur Mecollari, former commander of the Albanian navy, born to a military family that grew up first in Sazan and then on the nearby coast.
He investigated part of the island for remaining ammunition in 2008 and stated that danger still exists. "As for drinking water, we drilled at 3,500 meters and found nothing", he said. "I really don't think Kushner will come, I think he has no idea what this island means. Sazan cannot be done. This is my assessment".
A, deep open wound, for the land
The planned development is not only contested by activists. The land, too, has been the subject of legal battles for more than a decade.
On a small hill overlooking the flamingo lagoon, the residents of Zvërnec village grow figs and olives and tend to lush gardens. They insist that the land on which the new elite complex is to be built is actually theirs, as it was granted to their families at the end of the communist regime in Albania.
"In 1991, we were given the land our parents had", said Kostaq Konomi, the village president, showing documents that, he said, granted his family, like many others, a small plot. But, more than a decade later, the villagers said they discovered that the land registry had quietly granted conflicting property titles for the same land to a businessman named Artur Shehu.
The Albanian prosecution authorities recently issued an arrest warrant against Shehu and other businessmen suspected of involvement in international drug trafficking and money laundering through investments in Albanian real estate.
The villagers also suspect there was corruption when their land changed ownership. A protester in Tirana described the land issues as the country's "deepest open wound".
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