The Albanian government has given preliminary approval to a plan proposed by Jared Kushner, Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law, to build a $1.4 billion luxury hotel complex on a small abandoned military base off the coast of Albania.
The project is one of many involving Trump and his extended family that directly involve foreign government entities and that will continue even while Trump is responsible for foreign policy relating to these same nations.
The approval by Albania’s Strategic Investment Committee, led by Prime Minister Edi Rama, gives Kushner and his business partners the right to move forward with accelerated negotiations to build the luxury resort on a 1,400-acre section of the area of 2.2 square meters. mile of Sazan Island which will be connected by ferry to the mainland.
Kushner and the Albanian government did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. But when asked earlier about this project, both said the rating is not affected by Kushner’s ties to Trump or any attempt to seek favors from the US government.
“The fact that such a renowned American entrepreneur shows his interest in investing in Albania makes us very proud and happy,” a spokesman for Mr. Rama said in a statement to the New York Times last year when asked about the plans .
Kushner’s Affinity Partners, a private equity firm backed with about $4.6 billion in money coming mostly from Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern sovereign funds, is pursuing the project in Albania along with Asher Abehsera, a real estate executive who Kushner has previously partnered with to build projects in Brooklyn, New York
The Albanian government, according to an official document recently published online, will now work with American partners to clear the proposed hotel site of any buried munitions and to examine any other environmental or legal concerns that need to be resolved before the project can be moved. after you.
The document, dated December 30, notes that the government “has the right to reverse the decision”, depending on final negotiations on the project.
Mr Kushner’s company said the plan is to build a five-star “eco-resort community” on the island, transforming “a former military base into a vibrant international hospitality and wellness destination” .
Ivanka Trump, Mr. Trump’s daughter, said she is also helping with the project. “We will execute it,” he said of the project, during a podcast last year.
This project is just one of two major real estate deals that Kushner is pursuing with Abehsera that involve foreign governments.
Separately, the partnership received preliminary approval last year to build a luxury hotel complex in Belgrade, Serbia, in the former Ministry of Defense building, which sat empty for decades after being bombed by NATO in 1999 during a war.
Serbia and Albania have unfinished foreign policy issues with the United States, as both countries seek continued U.S. support for their long-stalled efforts to join the European Union, and Washington officials are instead trying to convince Serbia to strengthen ties with the United States. of Russia.
Virginia Canter, who served as a White House ethics lawyer during the Obama and Clinton administrations and also an ethics adviser to the International Monetary Fund, said that even if there had been no attempt to gain influence over Trump, any government deal involving his family would create that situation. impression.
“It all seems like favoritism, like they are providing access to Kushner because they want to get on Trump’s good side,” said Ms. Canter, now a member of the State Democracy Defenders Fund, a group that tracks federal government corruption and ethics issues.