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Albania’s government has given preliminary approval to plans by Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to build a $1.4 billion hotel on a small abandoned military base off the coast of Albania. .
The project is one of many involving Mr. Trump and his immediate family that are directly linked to foreign government agencies that will move forward even though Mr. Trump will be in charge of foreign policy related to those countries.
Approval by Albania’s Strategic Investment Committee — chaired by Prime Minister Edi Rama — gives Mr. Kushner and his partners the right to move forward with accelerated negotiations to build the facility. luxurious hotel on an area of 1,400 hectares on the 2.2-square-kilometer island of Sazan that will be connected by boat to the mainland.
Mr. Kushner and the Albanian government did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment. But when asked earlier about this project, both said that it does not affect the relationship of Mr. Kushner to Mr. Trump or any attempt to curry favor with the US government.
“The fact that a prominent American businessman is showing his interest in investing in Albania makes us very proud and happy,” Mr. Rama’s spokesman said last year in a statement to of The New York Times when asked about the projects.
mr. Kushner’s Affinity Partners, a private equity firm backed by $4.6 billion from Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern sovereign funds, is pursuing the Albania project with Asher Abehsera, a real estate executive. where Mr. Kushner has done it before. Collaborated on building a project in Brooklyn, NY
The Albanian government, according to an official document recently published online, will work with its American partners to clear the proposed hotel of possible weapons. investigate and consider any other environmental or legal issues that need to be resolved before the project moves forward. in advance.
The document, dated December 30, noted that the government “has the right to cancel the decision”, depending on the negotiations on the final project.
Mr. Kushner’s company said the plan was to build a five-star “eco-resort community” on the island by turning the “former military base into a dynamic international destination for hospitality and health”.
Ivanka Trump, Mr. Trump’s daughter, said she is also helping with the project. “We’re going to make it work,” he said of the project during a podcast last year.
This project is one of two major real estate deals Mr. Kushner is making with Mr. Abehsera that involve foreign governments.
Separately, the partnership last year received pre-approval to build a luxury hotel in Belgrade, Serbia, in the former Defense Ministry building, which has sat empty for decades. years after NATO dropped its bombs in 1999 during the war there.
Serbia and Albania have foreign policy issues ahead of the United States, as both countries continue to seek U.S. support in their long-running efforts to join the European Union, and officials in Washington is trying to convince Serbia to strengthen its relations with the United States. of Russia.
Virginia Canter, who served as White House ethics counsel during the Obama and Clinton administrations and is an ethics adviser at the International Monetary Fund, said while there is no attempt to gain influence from Mr. Even Trump, every government deal related to his family causes it. impressions.
“It all feels like favoritism, like they’re giving Kushner access because they want to get on Trump’s good side,” said Ms. Canter, with the Fund for Democracy in of State, a group that monitors federal corruption and ethics.
