BIRN Reports Three Resort Permits in Protected Area Near Vlora

Albania's National Council of Territory and Water (KKTU) approved three development permits for hotel and tourist resort projects inside the Pishë Poro–Narta protected area near Vlora in May and June 2025, according to an investigation published by Balkan Insight (BIRN) on 29 September. Two of the projects are in Zvërnec.

BIRN obtained the decisions from the National Territorial Planning Agency (AZHT) under Albania's freedom of information law. Together the three permits cover more than 190,000 square metres, and they had not been made public. BIRN reported that final decisions on the permits have not yet been formally issued, because the developers have not completed all the required documentation.

The three projects

• Arte Marea 1, a resort village of villas and seafront buildings in Zvërnec by Green Investment, on a 49,985-square-metre site with a built footprint of 8,424 square metres.
• SALTERRA 2, a hotel with service facilities in Zvërnec by Turi M.Z.P, with a footprint of 4,250 square metres. The company's owner, Artur Haxhi, told BIRN it had been granted a conditional permit that had not yet been formally issued, that it had asked for 11 storeys without knowing how many would be allowed, and that the investment would protect the natural environment.
• A tourist complex by Concord Investment on about 13.6 hectares of forest behind the Vlora Thermal Power Plant, for which BIRN says a conditional permit has been granted. Artan Dulaku, one of the brothers who own the company, told BIRN he did not see why degraded land next to the power plant should be protected at all.

Links to Artur Shehu

According to BIRN, all three permits are for land with previous connections to Artur Shehu, a Miami-based Albanian American businessman who has faced allegations of links to organised crime, drug trafficking and the appropriation of property along the Vlora coast. Shehu, contacted through his lawyer, did not respond to BIRN, and he has previously denied all allegations made against him. Prime Minister Edi Rama did not respond to BIRN's questions either.

Shehu also sold the land for the Kushner-linked resort. In July, Reuters reported, citing case files, that Albania's anti-corruption prosecutors (SPAK) suspect Shehu and associates of laundering cocaine-trafficking proceeds into property and of using falsified titles, and that about €110 million from that sale had been frozen in a notary's account. Shehu's lawyer told Reuters the allegations were untrue and that his client had lawfully sold land his family had held since Ottoman times.

Reactions

Environmental groups told BIRN the plans threaten the protected area. Zydjon Vorpsi of the conservation group PPNEA said that roads, sewers, concrete foundations and lighting would make the protected status meaningless and threaten wildlife and the hydrodynamics of the Vjosa Delta. Olsi Nika of EcoAlbania said the Kushner-linked project had set an example for large interventions, and warned that once such permits are granted, protected coastal areas could be broken up and turned into urban zones.

Protesters are demanding the repeal of amendments to the law on protected areas, which they say opened the way to illegal construction, BIRN noted.

Background

A separate tourism development in Zvërnec linked to Jared Kushner set off the protests that became known as the "Flamingo Revolution". Our explainer on the Zvërnec controversy has the full background, and our report on the 13 October student protest in Tirana covers the movement's latest turn.