Hello everyone,

Today, I'm publishing two primary-source documents about the Sazan development in Vlorë, Albania. They are full, unedited and open to view at the bottom of this document.

Here's why I am doing this: to put the actual paperwork in front of the public at a moment when the project has become the center of a national political and environmental fight. Transparency is key to finding solutions.

I'm not interpreting these for you more than necessary. I'd rather you read them and reach your own conclusions. But I do want to be exact about what they are, why I think they matter, and where to point out a few passages.

Document 1, the Request for Proposal. A tender package titled "Sazan Development: Request For Proposal, AOR/EOR & Engineering Services," dated 6 November 2025. It is issued by Sazan Real Estate Development LLC as "Employer," and submissions were directed to the Assets Group at its head office on the 15th floor of The Eighteen Tower, Doha, Qatar, with a proposal deadline of 13 November 2025. It solicits a local Architect-of-Record / Engineer-of-Record and full engineering consultancy, and it describes the project scope in detail.

Document 2, the Vision Masterplan. A design document titled "Vision Masterplan, Sazan, Book 2," dated 14 November 2025 and marked "Vision Masterplan Draft Submission," prepared by the architecture firm LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture) with a mobility chapter by Systematica. It states that it is built on a "Sazan Masterplan Brief V1.5" dated 20 August 2025.

These are the planning and procurement backbone of the project. One document tells you what is being designed and at what scale, the other tells you who was being hired to engineer it and obtain the approvals.

The development described in these documents is, by location, scale, and name, the project that has been reported as the Affinity Partners venture associated with Jared Kushner. This has been the subject of days of protests in Tirana, an EU warning, and an investigation opened by Albania's Special Prosecution Against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK).

The documents themselves do not name Kushner, Affinity Partners, or Atlantic Incubation Partners. They name corporate and professional entities: Sazan Real Estate Development LLC, the Assets Group in Doha, LAVA, Systematica.

The link to the widely reported backers is established by the public record and by the project's identity, not by these pages. I'm flagging that distinction deliberately to maintain complete transparency.

These are the passages I found most notable in light of how the project has been covered. I'm quoting the documents directly.

1. The mainland scale is larger than public framing. Coverage has centered on Sazan Island. But the masterplan describes a program of 254.8 hectares of land and 727,527 sqm of built area across 11 zones on the Narta peninsula. They also include elite branded hotels (Aman, Cheval Blanc, Cipriani, Atlantis, and a Sazan hotel are named), a yacht club, beach/lake/pine villas, and residential units.

The RFP describes roughly 520 villas, 600 townhouses, and 1,400 apartments, a casino, an 18-hole golf course, an 80,000 to 90,000 sqm water park, and a marina for superyachts "over 100 meters." On the island itself, the work is comparatively modest. The RFP scope lists "the refurbishment and upgrade of the existing marina on Sazan Island." The larger footprint is on the protected coast.

2. The authors document the protected status, and treat opposition as a project risk. The RFP states the site is "along the Adriatic Riviera, beside the protected Vjosa-Narta landscape." The masterplan's site analysis goes further, identifying the Karaburun-Sazan Marine Protected Area ("Albania's first MPA, established 2010"), the Vjosa-Nartë Protected Area, an Important Bird Area, and a Key Biodiversity Area, and listing the endangered Mediterranean monk seal, loggerhead turtle, flamingos, and Posidonia seagrass meadows. It then notes that protected-area laws face "loose enforcement at the moment however controversial," and that the Ornithological Society of Albania and Eco-Albania are "pushing for limiting development in protected areas," which "could be a potential risk to the development."

3. Environmental approval is still being tendered, as a deliverable to get the permit. As of the November 2025 RFP, the Environmental Impact Assessment was not complete; it was part of what the consultant was being hired to produce. The document makes the consultant "responsible to obtain approval on EIA and shall coordinate with the Authorities for actual requirement of the EIA Report to obtain the development permit," and lists "Preliminary & detailed EIA Submissions & Approvals" among the works. In other words, design and procurement were advancing while the environmental approvals were still pending.

4. The earthworks are considerable. The build also imagines a casino, a waterpark, and a dedicated longevity center. The masterplan quantifies the site engineering: roughly 6,000,000 m³ of cut/dredged soil and about 2,020,000 m³ of fill used to raise villa rows by 2.5 to 5 metres and the "Sazan Hills" by 8 metres, plus the creation of artificial lakes, canals, and an "Atlantis" zone.

The RFP's marine scope includes "dredging and reclamation works," "coastal protection structures," and "formation of canals," and tasks the consultant with the documentation "to initiate the concession phase of the Marinas project with the Albanian Government." The masterplan's own analysis warns that "uncontrolled dredging risks destabilizing lagoon hydrology" and that a "propose[d] marina is likely to impact biodiversity and alter flushing/water dynamics." The Citadel zone, meanwhile, includes a casino, framed in the masterplan as a "lever for Albania's Golden Visa ambitions."

This is a contested moment in Albania, and the gap between the public framing of this project and its planning record matters. These two documents are the project's own tender and design papers. Whatever one thinks of the development, the people whose coastline, environment, and public assets are at stake deserve to read the plans rather than characterizations of them. I'm releasing them so that anyone (journalists, residents, environmental scientists, officials) can work from the source.

I am not asserting that anything in these documents is, by itself, evidence of wrongdoing. I am not vouching for figures or intentions beyond what the pages say. And, again, the documents do not name any individual backer. I'm presenting them as what they are.

I encourage everyone to read them to draw their own conclusions.

The Under Report is a news and analysis source operated independently by Eric Czuleger. To support this work, please subscribe for free weekly intel.