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Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, confirmed Friday that he is nearing major real estate deals in Albania and Serbia. This is the latest example of a former president’s family doing business overseas despite Trump’s requests. To return to the White House.
Mr. Kushner’s plans for the Balkans appear to have materialized in part through relationships forged during Mr. Trump’s tenure. Kushner, a former White House official, said he was working on a deal with Richard Grenell, who briefly served as acting director of national intelligence under Trump and also served as ambassador to Germany and special envoy to the Balkans.
One of the proposed projects is to develop an island off the coast of Albania as a luxury tourist destination.
The second, where a luxury hotel, 1,500 housing units and a museum are planned, is in the Serbian capital Belgrade, a former Yugoslav military headquarters destroyed by NATO bombing in 1999 and long vacant, one source said. It will be built on the site of the. Serbian parliamentarians and Mr. Kushner’s company.
Both of these first two projects involve land currently controlled by the government and therefore require agreements with foreign governments.
The third project will also be built in Albania, on the Zvernet Peninsula, a 1,000-acre coastal area in southern Albania that is part of the resort community known as Vlore, where several hotels and hundreds of villas will be built. It is said that there are plans to do so. To plan.
Kushner’s participation will be through his investment firm Affinity Partners, which has $2 billion in funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and other foreign investors. Affinity Partners officials said in a statement that it has not yet been determined whether Saudi funds will participate in projects Kushner is considering in the Balkans.
“We’re very excited,” Kushner said in an interview. “We haven’t finalized these deals, so they may never happen, but we’ve been working hard and we’re pretty close.”
Kushner founded an investment firm after leaving his position as a senior White House adviser. He drew on relationships built in government negotiations in the Middle East, including close ties with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Kushner ultimately secured $2 billion from a Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund and hundreds of millions more from wealth funds in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. So far, he has taken few public steps to actually invest most of this money.
Mr. Grenell also developed valuable connections during his time in government, including one who appears to have provided the Kushner team with inside information about investments in the Balkans. Grenell worked on resolving the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo during the Trump administration.
Albania was indirectly involved in these discussions, as most of Kosovar’s population is ethnic Albanian, and Albania plays a role in regional discussions.
Grenell has maintained a close relationship with Trump even after the former president left office, defending him in public and speaking to him regularly.
Mr. Grenell has privately said he would like to become secretary of state in the second Trump administration, according to a person who discussed the matter with Mr. Grenell and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the conversation.
In an interview, Grenell declined on the record to discuss the possibility of becoming secretary of state. He said only that he has not yet decided whether to join a future Trump administration.
Robert Wiseman, president of Public Citizen, which tracked business deals that he deemed conflicts of interest during the Trump administration, said the planned deals were unethical and that Trump, especially if he was re-elected. He said it would only raise new questions about the house.
“At this point in the election cycle, Jared Kushner should freeze any new investment plans,” Wiseman said. “This particular investment project appears to involve the worst of all the corrupt tendencies of the Trump administration and Trump family.”
The Trump family’s involvement in foreign business dealings became a major focus during Trump’s term, with critics ultimately claiming that during Trump’s tenure, the family had illegally withdrawn foreign payments (called emoluments in the Constitution). He filed a lawsuit alleging that he had profited from it. Those cases were dismissed as an issue by the Supreme Court when Trump left office, but could be reopened if he returns to the White House.
Since leaving office, Trump has become a partner in a development project in Oman, a deal brought to him by a Saudi real estate company with ties to the Saudi government.
Kushner denied suggestions that he was receiving preferential treatment because of his tenure in government or that any of his work was connected to the former president.
“No one is giving me a ‘deal,'” Kushner said, insisting he has no intention of returning to Washington if his father-in-law is elected president again. “I operate with great care, and these investments will create a lot of value for our communities, partners and investors.”
Representatives for Mr. Trump did not respond to multiple emails seeking comment.
Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, have largely distanced themselves from Trump’s political activities since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The New York Times reached out to Mr. Kushner for the first time Wednesday morning about his upcoming projects in the Balkans. He initially refused to answer questions, responding only after revealing his plans to Bloomberg News on Friday.
Kushner and Trump visited Albania twice after Trump left office. They traveled around the country with Mr. Grenell and met with the Albanian prime minister.
Mr. Kushner and Mr. Trump, along with Mr. Grenell, have focused in part on the Mediterranean island of Sazan, south of Albania, which was exploited by the Soviet Union and communist-led forces until the end of the Cold War. The Albanian government used it as a secret military base for submarines. The plan is to build luxury hotels and villas on the island.
The rugged 2-square-mile island is home to hundreds of Cold War-era bunkers and tunnels designed to withstand nuclear attack, most of which have been vacant since the end of the Soviet Union. But it is just a 30-minute speedboat ride from the resort town of Vlore in southern Albania, where the Saudi government has already poured money into improving electricity services and other public works aimed at boosting tourism in Albania. .
Mr. Grenell, a former Fox News contributor and media consultant, has worked closely with Mr. Kushner and his investment firm.
Mr. Grenell has been vocal about efforts to turn the relationships he has built in Albania and elsewhere in the Balkans into personal gain. He has repeatedly visited the region and met with hotel industry executives and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
“We are looking for investment opportunities through foreign investment in the Balkans and more specifically in Albania. The Albanian coast is amazing,” Grenell said in one of a series of TV and newspaper interviews he gave in Albania. Told. For the past 3 years.
Day-to-day management of the project will be handled by California-based real estate developer Asher Abecerra. Asher Abecerra worked with Mr. Kushner on a project in Brooklyn, and with Mr. Grenell and Mr. Kushner traveled to the Balkans to check out development sites, Mr. Kushner said.
In a nearly 90-minute television interview in Albania last year, Grenell added that he had no problem building consensus now that he was no longer in government service. “I work on projects where I can make money, like private equity projects,” he said. “You should never apologize for wanting to make money.”
Last July, Grenell met with Rama in the Albanian capital Tirana, along with Ivanka Trump and Kushner, and they were photographed together.
For nearly a decade, Rama has pushed to open up Southern for redevelopment as a tourist destination, while also seeking other ways to attract foreign investors to Albania and expand the tourism economy.
Oron Tare, a former Albanian lawmaker and adviser to Rama, brought Trump and Kushner to Southern Island in 2021 as part of a visit to Albania that included a yacht cruise and a ship cruise. I went. Helicopter trip across the coast.
Mr. Tare said in an interview that he has talked with Mr. Kushner and Mr. Trump about wanting to develop Southern, but in a way that preserves its history and environment.
Mr. Kushner and Mr. Grenell have worked closely with billionaire Albanian businessman Shevket Kastrati and his son Musa Kastrati. Their investments include the rights to operate Tirana’s international airport, a chain of gas stations in Albania, hotels and other businesses, business people and Mr. Kushner said.
“They helped us understand construction costs and how to operate locally,” Kushner said in an interview.
Shevket Kastrati bought a $7.5 million home in Indian Creek, Florida, in October 2022, near where Trump and Kushner currently live, according to land records. Last year, the Kastrati family also purchased a hotel in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood from the Qatari royal family for $55 million.
Moussa Kastrati said in an interview that it is not yet clear what role his family’s company will play in Kushner’s Albania plans, but it will likely help build part of the complex. Castrati also said that he and Grenell visited Trump’s Florida vacation home and mansion, Mar-a-Lago, in December 2022, and that Trump was there for dinner when the former president arrived. He also admitted that he had met him briefly. Mr. Castrati said he had not discussed a possible agreement with Mr. Trump.
Grenell has repeatedly promoted tourism in Albania and praised Prime Minister Rama on his Instagram and other social media accounts.
“I support Rama’s vision for the Balkans,” Grenell said in a television interview in 2021 after meeting with another Albanian hotel industry executive named Irfan Heisenberiu. “I invite American investors to Albania because I love Albania.”
The Saudi government recently announced that it is exploring ways to increase investment in Albania. First of all, it will support the construction of water, electricity and sewerage services next to the beach area of Vlore, which is the starting point for Southern and where the new international airport will be built. Already built. It wants to invest up to $300 million in the country.
Earlier this month, Saudi officials visited Albania and announced the creation of what they called the Saudi-Albanian Business Council to “build a new economic partnership between the two countries” including tourism projects. The group’s Saudi chairman, Abdulrahman al-Mufaleh, did not respond to a request for comment.
Michael S. Schmidt Contributed to the report.
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