Albania Gives Jared Kushner Hotel Project a Nod as Trump Returns
The government of Albania 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 several involving Mr.
Trump and his extended family that directly involve foreign government entities that will be moving ahead even while Mr.Trump will be in charge of foreign policy related to these same nations.The approval by Albania’s Strategic Investment Committee — which is led by Prime Minister Edi Rama — gives Mr.
Kushner and his business partners the right to move ahead with accelerated negotiations to build the luxury resort on a 1,400-acre section of the 2.2-square-mile island of Sazan that will be connected by ferry to the mainland.Mr.Kushner and the Albanian government did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment.
But when previously asked about this project, both have said that the evaluation is not being influenced by Mr.Kushner’s ties to Mr.
Trump or any effort to try to seek favors from the U.S.government.“The fact that such a renowned American entrepreneur shows his interest on investing in Albania makes us very proud and happy,” a spokesman for Mr.
Rama said last year in a statement to The New York Times when asked about the projects.Mr.Kushner’s Affinity Partners, a private equity company backed with about $4.6 billion in money mostly from Saudi Arabia and other Middle East sovereign wealth funds, is pursing the Albania project along with Asher Abehsera, a real-estate executive that Mr.
Kushner has previous teamed up on to build projects in Brooklyn, N.Y.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a ...