EXCLUSIVEIvanka Trump reveals plans to build billion-dollar eco 'Hobbit homes' on a rugged island

By Ben Ashford For Dailymail.com 17:29 05 Jul 2024, updated 17:36 08 Jul 2024

• She said she has brought in best architects to develop Albania's Sazan Island 
• The development is on the site of a former Soviet military base
• READ MORE: Ivanka and Tiffany Trump celebrate father's 78th birthday

Ivanka Trump has revealed herself as the brains behind a trendy billion-dollar eco-hotel boasting quirky subterranean villas that resemble real life Hobbit homes.

The dinky dwellings will be carved into cliff tops on uninhabited Sazan island in the Mediterranean Sea, according to early artist renderings.

The rugged setting off Albania’s Adriatic coast was previously a secretive Soviet military base riddled with thousands of buried bunkers and underground tunnels.

But Donald Trump’s daughter, 42, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, 43, reckon well-heeled tourists will flock to the Communist-era outcrop to enjoy its pristine beaches, abundant wildlife and subtropical climate.

Kushner's Affinity Partners investment firm is in advanced discussions with the Albanian government to develop several major resorts including its Sazan Sea Villas project, according to Forbes.

But Ivanka’s close involvement was disclosed for the first time this week when she boasted to podcaster Lex Fridman that she and her husband have ‘this 1,400-acre island in the Mediterranean'.

The mom-of-three said: ‘We are building, bringing in the best architects, the best brands. To have a point of view and to challenge people that are such artists, respectfully but not to be afraid to ask questions, it takes a lot of confidence to do that.’

Ivanka revealed she’s enlisted Swiss-based luxury resort operator Aman and swank restaurant chain Carbone to operate the project’s hotel and restaurants.

‘It’s amazing to bring together all of this talent and for me to be able to play around and flex the real estate muscles again and have some fun with it,’ she purred.

‘Building and real estate is like a giant puzzle and I love puzzles.’

The former First Daughter hailed the Tolkien-esque suites depicted in the artists renderings as ‘extraordinary’ but insisted they were ‘early conceptual drawings’ rather than finished plans.

Sounding more like an architect than an economics grad, she explained: ‘It gives a sense of wanting to honor the topography that exists and this obviously very modern but obviously making it feel right in terms of the context of the vegetation and the terrain that exists and not just have a beautiful glass box.

‘Obviously you want glass, you want to look out and see that gorgeous blue ocean. But how do you do that in a way that doesn’t feel generic and isn’t a squandered opportunity to create something new.

‘So much of architecture you don’t see. How do you create independent structures and you don’t see the other. How do you ensure that the stacking and the master plan works in a way that’s harmonious?

‘The view corridors and all of those elements, all of those components of decision making are super appreciated but not often thought about.’

Sazan, the largest of Albania’s islands, was once considered a naval stronghold by former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who reflected during a 1959 visit: ‘From here I could control the Mediterranean as far as Gibraltar.’

Since the fall of Communism, it has remained a designated military exclusion zone but was finally opened to the public in 2015.

Building and real estate is like a giant puzzle and I love puzzles 

It now forms the outer perimeter of the Karaburun-Sazan Marine Park, a specially protected area for birds and wildlife.

Plans to build a swank Trump-linked resort have not gone unchallenged in Albania where autocratic Prime Minister Edi Rama has been criticized for greenlighting tourist development in protected areas.

Ivanka and Jared were pictured with Rama on a visit to Albania last summer where local outlets said they visited the House of Leaves, a former KGB spy facility that’s now a museum dedicated to the victims of communism.

Fridman’s three-hour interview didn’t delve into the project’s downsides, instead exploring Ivanka’s thoughts on her dad’s court battles and her reasons for stepping away from the Trump 2024 campaign to explore new projects and ‘live her best life’.

Ivanka, the former President’s second daughter, was previously executive vice president of the Trump Organization and a boardroom judge on his show, The Apprentice.

The businesswoman and ex-model became a senior advisor in the Trump administration, where she served as Director of the Office of Economic Initiatives and Entrepreneurship.

Jared, another senior Trump advisor from 2017 to 2021, founded private equity firm Affinity Partners after exiting politics.

The business has amassed assets totaling $3.1 billion with an estimated $2 billion of that coming from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

Sazan is reportedly one of multiple Balkan sites where Affinity and its backers want to build luxury resorts as the region enjoys an economic resurgence.

They have targeted Albania’s Zvernec Peninsula as a possible site for 10,000 units of villas and hotel rooms, according to Forbes.

Talks are also underway to build 1,500 homes and a hotel in an abandoned neighborhood that housed the former Yugoslavia’s Ministry of Defense building before it was bombed by NATO in 1999.

Earlier this year Kushner defended his overseas ventures and links to Middle Eastern moneymen during a Miami summit sponsored by media company Axios, insisting his approach to business was ethical and lawful.

‘If you ask me about the work that we did in the White House, for my critics, what I say is point to a single decision we made that wasn’t in the interest of America,’ Kushner added.