Inside Ivanka Trump’s plans to transform nuclear shelter into $1.4 billion island

Albania is the hipster’s holiday choice this summer. It was only a matter of time before a Trump got in on the act.

Despite hundreds of Albanian protesters being washed away by water cannons, Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka is reportedly going ahead with her plans to transform a Cold War-era military base into a luxury island resort.

In an interview this week Ivanka Trump said she stumbled upon Sazan Island – complete with thousands of sprawling nuclear bunkers -‘ by accident’ on holiday with her husband, Jared Kushner.

‘We were on a friend’s boat, and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that’s how we found it,’ she said.

‘We swam to the island. We went on a hike, barefoot all the way up to the top, and we were just captivated. And it’s stayed with us ever since. For me, this is, it feels more like a challenge than anything else.’

Where is Sazan Island- now dubbed Trump Island?

Sazan is Albania’s largest island and is a designated military exclusion zone located in a strategically important location between the Strait of Otranto and the mouth of the Bay of Vlorë.

Underneath the beautiful cliff faces and crystal blue waters lie at least 3,600 Soviet-style nuclear bunkers built during the Cold War.

The 1,400 acre Mediterranean island is also home to at least ten miles of underground tunnels stretching back from the Communist era.

Other bomb shelters and buildings designed to store military supplies and ammunition are also arranged around the area.

Experts have even warned about the presence of unexploded mines dotted across the stunning landscape that will need to be cleared -no wonder Trump called it a ‘fixer-upper’.

Undeterred, Ivanka revealed: ‘Over the course of many years, we developed the opportunity to help realise its potential and transform it, but with a lot of restraint and care.’

She hired some of the ‘greatest living architects’ to make designs blend with the already dramatic surroundings as if the buildings almost ‘rise from’ the land.

Albanian Anger

But Ivanka’s venture has drawn opposition from environmental campaigners and critics of long-time Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama.

The couple also hope to carry out a multibillion-dollar project that includes building hotels along the coast of Zvërnec, where wildlife such as flamingos and sea turtles nest.

Since late May, barbed wire has been erected to keep protesters from the excavators and other heavy machinery arriving clear to the land from the pine trees.

Activists have clashed with police at the site, hanging up signs like ‘Albania is not for sale,’ ‘Hands off Albanian soil’ and ‘Sazan is not a private island, it belongs to the Albanian people.’

‘From start to finish there has been a total lack of transparency,’ Aleksandër Trajçe, executive director of the country’s leading conservation group, the Protection and Preservation of the Natural Environment in Albania (PPNEA), told The Guardian.

‘We have seen no public consultation or public documentation regarding permits, and so now what we are saying is, if they remove the bulldozers, remove the fence and restore the habitats to what they were, then we can start talking.’

Albanian opposition leader Sali Berisha said that while he supports the renovation projects, he expressed concerns that Rama could have been ‘seeking to buy political influence’ from Trump.

But Rama insists the plans are in tune with Albania’s ambition to become a major global tourism destination.

‘Albania should not be a country that fears an extraordinary project like this one, where exceptional partners have come together to invest €4billion,’ Rama said.

‘There is absolutely no chance that the investment will stop as long as I am here,’ he said.

But after the backlash, Rama insisted: ‘There is not a project yet.

‘There is no such thing as a Trump family island.

‘There is no such thing as the family of the American president taking over protected areas where flamingos will be killed by them.’