Ivanka Trump reveals SHE’S the brains behind Jared’s billion-dollar eco ‘Hobbit home’ hotel on rugged ex-Soviet military base island in the Mediterranean

Ivanka Trump has emerged as the mastermind behind a trendy billion-dollar eco-hotel, featuring quirky underground villas that resemble real-life Hobbit homes.

According to early drawings by artists, the small houses are carved into the cliff tops of the uninhabited island of Sazan in the Mediterranean Sea.

This rugged area off Albania’s Adriatic coast was once a secret Soviet military base, littered with thousands of buried bunkers and underground tunnels.

But Donald Trump’s 42-year-old daughter and his 43-year-old son-in-law Jared Kushner expect wealthy tourists to flock to the communist-era island to enjoy its pristine beaches, rich flora and fauna and subtropical climate.

According to Forbes, Kushner’s investment firm Affinity Partners is in advanced negotiations with the Albanian government to develop several major resorts, including the Sazan Sea Villas project.

But Ivanka’s deep involvement was first revealed this week when she bragged to podcaster Lex Fridman that she and her husband own “this 1,400-acre island in the Mediterranean.”

The mother of three said: ‘We build, we bring in the best architects and the best brands. To take a stand and challenge people who are such artists, respectfully but not afraid to ask questions, it takes a lot of confidence to do that.’

Ivanka revealed that she has hired Swiss luxury resort operator Aman and upscale restaurant chain Carbone to operate the project’s hotels and restaurants.

“It’s great to bring all this talent together and be able to play again, flex my real estate muscles and have fun doing it,” she purred.

‘Construction and real estate are like one big puzzle and I love puzzles.’

The former First Daughter called the Tolkien-esque suites seen in the drawings “extraordinary,” but insisted they were “early conceptual drawings” and not finished plans.

Sounding more like an architect than a graduate economist, she explains: ‘There’s a sense of honouring the topography that’s there. It’s very modern, but it also works well with the context of the vegetation and the terrain. It’s not just a pretty glass box.’

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

‘There is so much architecture that you don’t see. How do you create independent structures and not see the other. How do you make sure that the stacking and the master plan work in a harmonious way?

“The sightlines and all those elements, all those components of decision-making are greatly valued, but they’re not often thought about.”

Sazan, the largest of Albania’s islands, was once considered a naval stronghold by former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. During a visit in 1959, he said: ‘From here I could control the Mediterranean all the way to Gibraltar.’

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

Today it forms the outer boundary of the Karaburun-Sazan Marine Park, a specially protected area for birds and wildlife.

Plans to build a posh resort with Trump ties have not gone unchallenged in Albania, with autocratic Prime Minister Edi Rama facing criticism for greenlighting tourist developments in protected areas.

Ivanka and Jared were photographed with Rama during a visit to Albania last summer, where they visited the House of Leaves, a former KGB spy center that is now a museum dedicated to the victims of communism, according to local media.

The three-hour interview with Fridman did not delve into the downsides of the project, but instead focused on Ivanka’s thoughts on her father’s lawsuits 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 chair of the Trump Organization and a judge on his show The Apprentice.

The businesswoman and former model became a senior adviser in the Trump administration, where she was director of the Office of Economic Initiatives and Entrepreneurship.

Jared, who was also a key adviser to Trump from 2017 to 2021, founded the private equity firm Affinity Partners after leaving politics.

The company has amassed assets totaling $3.1 billion, of which an estimated $2 billion comes from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

Sazan is reportedly one of several locations in the Balkans where Affinity and its investors are looking to build luxury resorts as the region recovers economically.

According to Forbes, they are eyeing Albania’s Zvernec Peninsula as a possible location for 10,000 villas and hotel rooms.

There are also talks to build 1,500 homes and a hotel in an abandoned neighborhood that was home to the former Yugoslav Ministry of Defense before it was bombed by NATO in 1999.

Earlier this year, Kushner defended his overseas ventures and ties to Middle Eastern financial institutions at a summit in Miami sponsored by media company Axios, insisting that his approach to business is ethical and lawful.

“When you ask me about the work we did in the White House, I say to my critics, I want to point you to one decision we made that was not in the best interest of America,” Kushner added.