The Kushner Resort in Albania: What’s Happening at Sazan and Vjosa-Narta

We run tours on this exact stretch of coast. So when a multi-billion-euro Kushner resort in Albania lands on Sazan Island and the Vjosa-Narta wetlands, and thousands are out in the streets about it, people ask us what we think. Here is the honest answer from someone who actually works here.

We are not against investment. We are not against luxury tourism. We want both. The question is whether this particular project, in this particular place, is done right. And right now, nobody can tell you that yet.

01What exactly is the Kushner project in Albania?

It is a luxury tourism development on Albania’s southern Adriatic coast, linked to Jared Kushner’s investment firm Affinity Partners. The Kushner resort in Albania Sazan Island and the Vjosa-Narta wetlands has two parts: a resort on the uninhabited island of Sazan, valued at around 1.4 billion euros, and a much larger coastal development next to the Vjosa-Narta protected landscape near Vlora.

The Sazan piece is the smaller one. Reports say it will be a high-end eco-resort, with Aman Resorts mentioned as the operator, built around the island’s old Cold War military bunkers.

The mainland piece is the heavy one. Reporting describes as many as 10,000 hotel rooms and villas spread along the coast near Zvërnec and Pishë Poro.

The timeline matters. Albania granted “strategic investor” status to a Kushner-linked company, Atlantic Incubation Partners, on December 30, 2024. That status gives fast-track permits. Prime Minister Edi Rama then approved the wider project in December 2025. He has since talked about a combined figure of 4 billion euros that includes the Vlora area.

Map showing Sazan Island in the bay of Vlora and the Narta Lagoon coastline, with the protected area marked.

02Where is this happening, and why does this coast matter so much?

This is one of the last wild coastlines left on the Mediterranean. Sazan is Albania’s largest island, sitting where the Adriatic meets the Ionian, a closed military base until December 2024. The mainland site is the Vjosa-Narta protected landscape, a 42 square kilometre wetland that almost no foreign visitor has heard of, and that is exactly the point.

Narta Lagoon is a bird kingdom. Around 3,000 greater flamingos live on the salt pans. You can see the pink clusters against the white salt without binoculars.

The Dalmatian pelican feeds here. So do great white pelicans, herons, and waders. Over 200 bird species in total, with as many as 34,800 birds counted in winter.

It sits on the Adriatic Flyway, the migration corridor birds use between Africa and Europe. The waters around it are one of the last Mediterranean refuges for the monk seal, and the beaches are a nesting ground for the loggerhead turtle.

Then there is Zvërnec. A small island in the lagoon with a 13th-century Byzantine monastery, reached by a wooden footbridge through the water. It is one of the most peaceful spots in the country.

Wooden footbridge leading to Zvernec monastery island across the calm lagoon water.

03Wasn’t the Vjosa already protected?

When Albania made the Vjosa Europe’s first Wild River National Park in March 2023, the protection stopped at the river. It did not cover the delta, which is the most biodiverse part of the whole system, home to the pelicans, flamingos, spoonbills and loggerhead turtles. The resort is going exactly where the protection runs out. They protected the river and left the river’s mouth exposed. That is the story, and almost nobody is telling it that cleanly.

04Why are Albanians protesting?

People are not protesting investment. They are protesting how this was done, and where. On June 2 and 3, 2026, thousands gathered outside Rama’s office in Tirana under the slogan “Albania is not for sale.” Some carried inflatable flamingos. One sign read “I don’t want Albania like Dubai.” Police used a water cannon on the second night.

The anger has a few clear sources.

Process. Albania’s anti-corruption prosecutors, SPAK, opened an investigation into the 2024 changes to the protected status of the land, how public tenders were bypassed, and where the money to buy land titles came from.

Force on the ground. Since late May, excavators and fencing have moved into the area. Public anger jumped after a video showed a private security guard dragging an activist away from the site.

And one comment that landed badly. Ivanka Trump publicly described Sazan as a “private island” the family had “discovered.” For a lot of Albanians, that one word, discovered, summed up the whole feeling of an outsider treating their land as a personal find.

05What does Rama say?

Rama is defending the project without backing down. His argument is that Albania needs serious investment, that this moves the country into high-value tourism, and that it supports the push toward European Union membership. He frames it as a chance Albania should not be afraid of.

His position is blunt. He told Reuters there is “no chance” the investment will stop while he is in office.

This is the part where we stay fair. Albania does need investment. The country has 450 kilometres of coast that stayed mostly undeveloped through the communist years. Used well, that is an enormous opportunity. The disagreement is not about whether to develop. It is about how, and at what cost.

06What happened with the same investors in Serbia?

This is worth knowing if you are following the Kushner resort in Albania story, because it already happened next door. A near-identical Kushner-linked luxury project was planned in Belgrade. Serbia passed a special law to allow it on a protected heritage site. Then the organized-crime prosecutor charged several officials, including a government minister, with abuse of office and document fraud over lifting that site’s protection. Kushner pulled out.

We are not saying Albania is Serbia. We are saying the pattern is not new, and the warning signs are familiar.

07Where InAlb Stands on this

Our position is simple. Show us the environmental scope, and then we will tell you if we are cheering or worried. Yes to investment. Yes to development. But yes to this project depends entirely on what it does to the wetland and the community. That information does not exist yet, because the final environmental studies have not been completed.

Here is the honest math. Zero environmental damage on a project this size is almost never realistic. We know that. But there is a huge difference between 0 to 5 percent impact and tearing up a wetland.

If this comes back as a low-impact, world-class development that protects the lagoon and the birds, we will be the first to cheer for it. The jobs, the infrastructure, the international profile, all of it.

So these are the questions we actually want answered.

What do the local community and Albania as a whole gain? Real jobs and real ownership, or just service work around a gated resort?

Will it carry any Albanian character? Will it use our artisans, our stone, our craft, our food, our music? Or will it be the same imported luxury you can find in any warm country?

How is it built as an experience? Will local singers and dancers, real Albanian heritage, be part of what guests come for? Or is the culture just a logo on the brochure?

And the big one. The Vjosa is the last wild river in Europe. Building on its delta is not a small thing. So which will it be: the last wild river of Europe turned into a wall of cement for the ultra-rich, or a new investment that becomes the wild crown jewel it could be?

We do not have the answers yet. Neither does anyone else. That is precisely the problem.

Can you still visit Sazan and the Vjosa-Narta coast right now?

Yes. For now, all of it is still here and still open. The flamingos are still on the salt pans. The monastery at Zvërnec is still reached by that wooden bridge. Sazan is still the strange, bunker-covered island it has always been. If you want to see this coast the way it is today, this is the moment.

This is what we do. We are a local, Travelife-certified operator based in Tirana, and we know these back roads and these salt flats by name.

Come birdwatching in the Narta Lagoon with a local guide who can find the pelicans for you. Organized birdwatching trips on this coast usually run between 30 and 50 euros per person.

Sail out to Sazan and the Karaburun peninsula on our boat trip and walk the old military island yourself.

Sazan and Karaburun boat tour →

Or let us build the whole southern coast into a private, tailor-made trip, at your pace, with the wild parts front and centre.

Tailor Made Tours →

See the coast at the centre of the Kushner resort in Albania story, while it is still the wild jewel we are talking about.

Sazan Island from the water, rocky coastline with old military structures and clear turquoise sea.