As Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner move ahead with a plan to transform an Albanian island filled with decaying Soviet-era military outposts into a one-of-a-kind resort experience for the ultra wealthy, one local has a message for the couple.
Engjell Rrapaj, founder and CEO of BoatvenTours, frequently takes people out to the island of Sazan on his company’s tour boats.
A visit to Sazan aboard one of Rrapaj’s boats means seeing a smattering of the more than 3,600 bunkers and crumbling buildings used by Albanian soldiers back when the country was a repressive communist regime.
It’s a history some like to forget, such as Rrapaj’s father, who was forced to serve in the army in the 1970s under dictator Enver Hoxha.
His father, now 71, did his training on the island, which is about 9 miles away from the port of Vlorë, a mid-sized Albanian city. That’s where Rrapaj’s tour boats leave from.
He recalled asking his father if he ever wanted to visit Sazan with him. He told his son, ‘Take me there once it has been flattened.’
But for most Albanians, Sazan doesn’t necessarily evoke the same level of revulsion, simply because it has been over 30 years since the fall of its communist government and fewer people alive have vivid memories of what that was like.
Rrapaj told the Daily Mail that locals are generally supportive of Trump and Kushner’s bid to build a $1.4 billion resort on the island, with most thinking it will drive more tourism and economic growth to the Vlorë area.
Engjell Rrapaj, founder and CEO of BoatvenTours, has a message for Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump as they seek to transform Sazan into an island paradise for the super rich
Rrapaj doesn’t want the ambitious couple to erase the remnants of the oppressive regime his father had to suffer through. Sazan (pictured) has more than 3,600 bunkers and crumbling buildings that were once used by Albanian soldiers and their families
A Cold War-era bunker on Sazan island, Albania, is seen above
Kushner and Trump’s mega resort on Sazan was approved by the Albanian government on Dec. 30, 2024
‘If there are going to be these kind of investments in Vlorë, it will be gaining a lot of traction, a lot of high-end tourists. So that would be something positive. And I think that is the main driving opinion,’ he said.
‘Vlorë is being built as a profile for high-end tourism. And the island of Sazan, in my humble opinion, would be perfect for that because being an isolated area, it means it’s very exclusive.’
At the same time, Rrapaj said he wants Trump and Kushner to preserve the history of Sazan and not bulldoze the military bases, the schools for children of soldiers and the dining halls.
‘In Italian, they have a saying for something when it’s ugly. It’s like a punch in the eye,’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘If they respect its history, if they respect the nature, if they do something that is not going to hit you in the eye, then it very much has the conditions of being successful.’
He explained that tourists tend to feel like they’ve entered a time warp when they lay eyes upon the rows of abandoned military barracks.
‘They feel like they have not only traveled in space but also in time,’ Rrapaj said. ‘They see this island that was built with the mentality of a military regime. It’s something that we may now think of like North Korea.’
Rrapaj also hopes they do their best to maintain the unique look of Sazan.
An early rendering of the dwellings that look like Hobbit homes envisaged by Ivanka Trump that will be carved into cliff tops on uninhabited Sazan island in the Mediterranean Sea
Pictured: Sazan is just 9 miles off the coast of Vlorë in the Mediterranean Sea
One of the last truly untouched islands in the Mediterranean, it’s known for having a subtropical climate, fabulously clear waters and lush vegetation, including ferns, giant lavender, plumbago, rosemary, broom and laurels.
One of Kushner’s partners on the resort project, real estate executive Asher Abehsera, has pledged that the buildings comprising the hotel will not ‘impose’ on nature. Early renderings show the dwellings carved into cliff tops that look like real life Hobbit homes.
Abehsera told The Guardian in August 2024, it will feel as though the new structures are ‘sculpted or even scalloped by nature.’
Kushner’s Affinity Partners, a private equity firm backed by $4.6 billion from mostly Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, is taking charge on the Sazan mega-resort.
Now that Ivanka and Kushner’s involvement in this deal has been well known since last year, some locals have taken to calling Sazan Ishulli i Trumpëve, which translates to Trump Island.
Sazan, about 11 times smaller than Manhattan, is also chock full of unexploded landmines and other dangerous munitions that are decades old.
This has complicated the plan to develop the island, as Kushner wants to build his hotel on a 111-acre site of a former Albanian military base.
The Albanian government – led by Prime Minister Edi Rama – approved Kushner’s proposal on Dec. 30, 2024, about two months after his father-in-law, Donald Trump, was elected president for a second time.
Pictured: An old military command building sitting atop a hill on Sazan
Pictured: An abandoned outpost used by Albanian forces under the fallen communist regime
Pictured: A school once there for the children of Albanian soldiers living on Sazan. The Soviet Star is prominently feature
Pictured: Rows of what was once military barracks dot the coastline of Sazan to this day
Kushner and Trump, who both served as advisors to the president in his first term, have seemingly rejected continuing in politics and have instead shifted their attention entirely to real estate.
Rama raved about the new island resort, telling The Guardian that his country ‘can’t afford not to exploit a gift like Sazan.’
‘We need luxury tourism like a desert needs water,’ Rama said, adding that further American investment in the Balkan region could drive out further Russian influence.
Kushner has spoken highly of Rama, calling him ‘a great partner.’
He also said the government’s decision to greenlight a new international airport in the Vlorë area will do a lot to help future clientele more easily travel to the yet-to-be built resort.
Right now, the closest airport to Sazan is 70 miles away in Albania’s capital city of Tiranë.
Crucially, Albanian authorities are also helping clear the hotel site of any buried munitions.
Plans to remove the remaining weapons on the island have been underway since July 2020, when the government dispatched members of the armed forces to begin getting rid of any dangerous ordnance.
Crucially, Albanian authorities are helping clear the hotel site of any buried munitions (Pictured: A mine sign attached to a tree on Sazan warning potential passers by where not to walk)
Prime Minister Edi Rama (pictured), a big supporter of the new luxury resort on Sazan, has been called a ‘great partner’ by Kushner
Nowadays, Sazan is controlled by Albanian armed forces. Three sailors patrol an area near the docks on the gulf of San Nicolo, the port where Affinity plans to set up the main marina for yachts.
Albania was considered one of the poorest countries in Europe during the Soviet era and has made plenty of progress economically over the last 30 years, even though it still lags behind its Western European counterparts in terms of GDP per capita and other metrics.
The area where Albania has made the biggest improvement is tourism. According to local media, nearly 12 million foreign visitors traveled to the country in 2024, a 15 percent year-over-year increase.
The number of visitors to Albania last year was more than quadruple its population of 2.7 million, which makes the country especially reliant on tourism.
Still there’s concern among certain government officials that this is unsustainable, given Albania’s small size and lacking infrastructure to accommodate the sheer number of people.
‘We can’t compete with Italy, Croatia and Greece in the mass tourism industry. We don’t have enough infrastructure or experience,’ Mirela Kumbaro, Albania’s tourism minister told The Guardian.
‘We have to focus on quality, on value over volume – more profits and fewer problems,’ she said.
Though the work has not begun on the Sazan megahotel, both Kushner and Abehsera are already hyping up how unique and opulent the property will be.
The number of visitors to Albania last year was more than quadruple its population of 2.7 million, which makes the country especially reliant on tourism (Pictured: The mainland coastline as viewed from an elevated position on Sazan)
Pictured: The island of Sazan being illuminated by a setting sun
Abehsera has said it would be a ‘jewel on the Mediterranean’.
Kushner didn’t fully commit to the idea that the island would still be broadly accessible by normal people and locals who want to enjoy its beaches.
‘We’re creating a very high-end luxury product,’ he said. ‘One of the most compelling points about the island is just the ability to have privacy.
‘But I also think there are certain aspects of the island we can build out that will give people the opportunity to come visit and enjoy some of the food and the trails.’
These kinds of sentiments from Kusher have given tour guides like Rrapaj hope that Sazan won’t be closed off to regular folks, which would also have the dreaded side effect of harming his business.
Rrapaj believes he’ll still be able to take people out to Sazan once the Kushner-Trump hotel is built. He even sees it as an opportunity to upgrade what he’s currently offering and make it more luxurious to fit with the future ethos of the island.
‘I don’t think it will be an issue, because you have places like Monte Carlo that are luxury places and you can still go visit,’ he said. ‘I’ve been in Costa Smeralda. That’s one of the most exclusive places in all of Italy and you can still go and see it.’
Kushner has also pushed back against criticism that his relationship with President Donald Trump and his previous government work for the White House has influenced the project’s approval process.
Rrapaj is hopeful that Kushner and Trump will allow him and tour guides like him to continue bringing people out to explore Sazan after the hotel is built. The couple pictured above with President Trump
‘I never met Prime Minister Rama when I was in government,’ Kushner told The Guardian. ‘But even if I had, it’s not a conflict of interest. People who serve in government, they build different relationships.’
Virginia Canter, who served as White House ethics lawyer during the Obama and Clinton administrations, told The New York Times in January that this looks like the Albanian government trying to curry favor with the current administration.
‘It all looks like favoritism, like they are providing access to Kushner because they want to be on the good side of [President] Trump,’ said Canter, who now works with the State Democracy Defenders Fund, a group that tracks corruption in the federal government.
