A dark glimpse into Albania’s touristic Future: The Players Behind “Vlora Marina”

Samir Mane, the richest Albanian, founder and owner of Balfin Group whose net worth is about $2 billion, in the last three years has had a successful real estate run in Albania and North Macedonia. In 2021 he constructed the East Gate shopping mall in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, after another company, ERA of Slovenia, initially won the right to the land. Mane then expanded to the coastal Albanian city of Vlorë. Mane’s Balfin Group gained access to land rights in Albania in 2022 after joining  a consortium of four companies that had already successfully obtained the Vlorë  Port bid. The joint venture, which did not include Balfin or Mane at the outset, also received state land to construct an elite residential and business complex right next to the port. 

Both deals have led to questions about whether Balfin and Mane received special treatment by the Governments of Albania and North Macedonia. Similar questions also have arisen about deals in the region by former U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

As neighboring countries, Albania and Macedonia have shared a common fate for centuries. They’ve been both enemies and allies, conquerors and conquered. Their populations include Christians, Muslims, and atheists. They’ve experienced feudalism, socialism, and democracy, and are now members of NATO and candidates for EU membership.

After decades of isolation under Enver Hoxha’s harsh communist regime (1944-1985), Albania faced political instability in the early ’90s. At the same time, Yugoslavia was disintegrating in a bloody conflict, and Macedonia, now North Macedonia, declared its independence.

Both countries have endured years of poverty, crime, and corruption. In 1997, social unrest in Albania intensified after the collapse of pyramid scheme savings banks, which left hundreds of thousands of citizens stripped of their hard-earned savings and led to the collapse of the savings bank industry.

That same year, the 2 million inhabitants of Macedonia saw the TAT pyramid scheme collapse, causing 13.000 people to lose their money. The TAT bank, which had risen quickly, fell just as fast, taking with it around 120 million German Marks (DEM), or today the equivalent of about 60 million euros. About 100 desperate people  who lost their funds in the scandal, took their own lives. 

After the collapse of the saving banks in Albania, military warehouses were looted during the ensuing civil unrest. Street gangs armed themselves and took control of several major cities. Albania narrowly avoided a full-scale civil war that year, but the chaos resulted in around 4,000 deaths.

Due to the ongoing political and economic turmoil in the 1990s, many people began to leave the two neighboring countries, while those who stayed faced continued hardship. It took over a decade for the two nation’s economies to begin to show any significant growth.

In 2009, Albania joined NATO. The country’s stunning natural beauty, with access to two seas – the Adriatic and the Ionian – was also helping its economy, attracting increasing numbers of foreign tourists. Many curious travelers wanted to witness firsthand how Albania, once a communist ruin, had transformed into a Mediterranean tourist gem, as highlighted by numerous Western European media outlets in recent years.

This surge in interest created a demand for accommodation and infrastructure, including hotels, apartments, and other services. And a building boom began.

Building permits for various types of construction showed that the government issued  1,194 permits issued in 2018 throughout the country. This was followed by 1,094 permits in 2019, 961 in 2020, 1,396 in 2021, 1,420 in 2022, and 1,602 permits in 2023.

Tourism, one of the driving forces of the Albanian economy, was expected to account for 8.8% of GDP from 2019-2023, with a projected increase to 9.3% by 2028. The official information of the Governmental body called Albanian Investment Development Agency (AIDA) points out that services consist of around 50% of the overall domestic economy, followed by agriculture (20%). But the tourism sector creates around 20% of the total employment in Albania.

The smell of the sea and money also attracted construction companies and retailers – and some people and companies that were able to cash in on political connections to seize as much as possible from Albania’s promising tourism future.

Meanwhile, in North Macedonia, there was growing speculation in real estate around the same time that the country was preparing to enter NATO. Between 2017 and 2018, in Skopje, state property from the company Skopski Saem (Skopje Fair) changed hands among various private entities before eventually ending up in the hands of the Balfin Group.

Two years later in 2020, North Macedonia joined NATO.

Albania’s Quest for Foreign Investors

The initiative to attract foreign investments to Albania, known as The 1-Euro Programme, began in August 2006 under the leadership of Sali Berisha, then-prime minister and leader of the Democratic Party.

However, Edi Rama, the charismatic young president of the socialist opposition and mayor of Tirana from 2000 to 2011, criticized the project, claiming that Berisha and his policies actually were obstacles to foreign investment.

Despite the socialists’ initial opposition, the initiative did not fade away. In fact, it was revived by Edi Rama himself after he became prime minister in 2013, succeeding Berisha.

In 2015, Rama expanded the initiative by enacting a Law on Strategic Investments. This law aimed to establish a system to allow foreign and domestic investors to receive state land, benefit from expedited administrative processes, and be exempt from certain taxes.

Of the 35 projects designated as strategic investments since 2016, only two were made up of entirely foreign investors. Four were joint ventures involving foreign companies and Albanian partners, while the remaining 29 were domestic companies, government data show.

The list of companies granted strategic investor status by the Special Strategic Investments Committee (KIS) shows that Samir Mane is an investor in five projects on the coast and in the country’s interior. 

Other notable recipients of strategic investor status include Albanian political insiders. They include Artan Gaçi, husband of former Minister of Foreign Affairs Olta Xhaçka (in office 2021-2023), who received state land near the picturesque seaside village of Dhërmi with the promise of building a five-star resort. 

Florenc Gjikuria, owner of a large construction company in Albania, also received the status and state land.

Vlorë- Port concession ‘evolves’ into apartments on state land

On paper, Albania is quite wealthy. The country owns the land where the ports are located, as well as adjacent properties attractive to developers. But many of these neighborhoods are populated by people without substantial means, including pensioners and others living on limited incomes.

The “1 May” neighborhood in the sunny Albanian seaside town of Vlorë on the Adriatic appears quite impoverished, resembling a “favela” or slum with its modest and dilapidated houses. Some of these buildings seem to have been constructed without proper permits, and the streets suffer from poor asphalt, lack of greenery, and badly maintained sidewalks.

Yet, the true value of the settlement lies in something entirely different – its location. It is adjacent to the harbor, which has been undergoing a complete transformation since late 2022. The port will no longer serve as a docking area for rusty merchant ships. Instead, plans call for it to be converted into a marina for private luxury yachts, catering to the Albanian, European, and international elite cruising the Adriatic and Mediterranean. This is the Vlora Marina Project.

In some areas of the neighborhood, new buildings and complexes have already replaced the old houses. These new developments are expected to offer accommodations to support the city’s rapid growth in tourism. But some residents are experiencing trouble in the neighborhood next to the Vlorë port. They have been protesting in the streets for months. They are unsatisfied with how the municipality assessed the value of the houses that are targeted for demolition, and say that they should be paid more for their properties and because they are targeted for displacement. 

The construction of a street to provide access to the future upscale development —which will include hotels, apartment buildings, stores, and a port—will result in what residents and the government estimate will be at least 20 families from the neighborhood losing their homes. Some may not receive any compensation because they lack proper documentation to prove ownership.

“How can they tell a mother, ‘We’re going to throw you out with all your things’? What does that even mean?! Have some respect! They’re tossing her out with her belongings and giving no consideration! There are laws, there is a state—what is happening? What kind of country is this?!”

“They came one day and left a note saying they would demolish our house. How can you demolish my house?! I live there with two orphans. What am I supposed to do, where am I supposed to go? I don’t know. A bulldozer came a week ago. We parked our car here to prevent them from demolishing our house,” Mimoza Çelaj (61) and her son Mariglen (29) told Investigative Reporting Lab (IRL), standing in front of their modest one-story home.

“This isn’t being done to benefit the community. It’s benefiting the gentleman who is building the resort. This street doesn’t serve the community,” Leonard Xhako (48), a neighbor of Mimoza and Mariglen, told IRL.

These residents say they are not against the new investments but are seeking fair compensation from the state. Many people took up residence in the neighborhood during the communist regime of dictator Enver Hoxha, when many received plots of land or houses from the state.

Some received land in recognition of their contributions to society, while others were given aid because they were impoverished. They paid a minimal amount to the state over the years and invested in maintaining their properties in the range of 50 to 100 euro per month.

“They won’t give me my property title because as they say I had renovated my house—well, what else was I supposed to do? The house is 60 years old, the roof was about to fall. I’ve been paying rent to my country for 32 years.” Rukie Shabani (72) said as she showed photographs of the house’s crumbling brick façade.

IRL addressed three questions to the municipality of Vlorë by email. We asked the Municipality about the issues concerning the properties of residents citizens in this settlement, their response to claims that the street is being built for the interests of the Vlora Marina project rather than for the residents’ needs, and their comments on allegations that the municipality is ignoring residents’ problems. The Municipality responded in an E-mail sent by the public relation’s office on July 8:

“This is a public investment financed by the Albanian Government, approved in 2020 as an extension of the street ‘Gjerg Kastrioti’ (Transbalkan) that connects to the sea port of Vlorë, as a section that serves the citizens in general, but also the residents of that region.”

Then on July 30 IRL got an additional attached-answer by Email, signed by the Vice-Mayor of Vlorë, Klevis Kaso, explaining in detail the process of the financial evaluation and compensation of the households. According to him, the compensation procedure for 30 houses was already adopted by the Municipality, 3 houses are in procedure. Another 17 households haven’t offered the right documentation, while 9 others are still in procedure, but in other institutions.

Suspicious tender and company withdrawals

The story of the Vlorë project can be traced to December 2020, when a joint venture made up of Albanian companies Marina di Valona,, Brunes, and Ndregjoni, and British company Marina Projects Ltd., prepared a business plan, that is a feasibility study. Their goal was to secure the concession for the port in Vlorë, transform it into a tourist marina, and construct surrounding structures.

The business plan, which Investigative Reporting Lab has seen, revealed that the joint venture planned to:

– Secure the concession of the trading port and transform it into a fashionable tourist marina;

– Develop the surrounding public space and connect it with the Lungomare quay, the main pedestrian recreation zone in Vlorë; 

– Develop a commercial, residential zone near the marina.

But at the time the plan was developed, there was no public announcement of a competition to win a tender to develop the area.

Just a month later, in early 2021, Edi Rama’s government, through the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, announced a tender to award concessions for the port using a public-private partnership (PPP) model.

The tender was announced on January 6, 2021 and remained open to applicants until February 26, 2021.

The winner of the tender was required to design a modern yacht marina, build it, manage it, and maintain it for 35 years. Applicants were required to propose an investment of no less than 22.7 million euro (excluding VAT). The tender documentation that IRL possesses specifies that all interested applicants were required to have experience in designing – as stressed – “world-class marinas”, i.e., these specific types of ports (see page 33). This requirement is listed under criterion IV.2. But a series of arrivals and departures in the joint venture that eventually won the tender suggests that some of the companies that were part of the original application, were there only to help others win the deal. They did not remain part of the project after the joint venture won the tender.

Three offers were received, and the winner was announced in March 2021. It was the aforementioned joint venture consisting of the companies Marina di Valona, Brunes, and Ndregjoni, all Albanian companies, and Marina Projects Ltd, of Great Britain, which had prepared the business plan for the location just two and a half months earlier. The winning joint venture proposed an investment of at least 22.8 million euros, excluding VAT—about 100,000 euros more than the required minimum. Two Albanian companies, Albavia and Gjikuria, who had applied, were disqualified.

The Disqualification of Gjikuria and Albavia from the Tender

The route to Balfin’s ownership and withdrawal from the Vlorë project began on March 29, 2021, the Albanian Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy announced the winner of the concession and listed the companies that were disqualified. These companies were Albavia and Gjikuria.

Considering these are significant domestic companies operating in the Albanian market, it is unclear how or why they failed to submit standard documents, such as a financial audit report. It is also puzzling why they even participated in the tender knowing it required experience in building world-class marinas. Albavia even proposed an investment 2 million euros below the minimum stipulated in the tender.

The invitation to tender required applicants to meet the following criterion:

– The economic operator must have proven experience in designing and constructing world-class marinas, allowing them to meet international industry standards and accreditation. 

 Gjikuria and Albavia did not demonstrate a proven track record in designing and constructing world-class marinas, according to their own public filings with the Albanian government.

IRL and its partner organization OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) in Tirana sent the following questions to Gjikuria and Albavia in April 2024:

None of the companies responded to IRL.

57,502 square meters of state land for residential buildings

On March 29, 2021, the same day the tender winner of the port of Vlorë concession was announced, the Albanian State Committee for Strategic Investments (KIS) granted the winning joint venture strategic investor status—not for the marina, but for adjacent property where the joint venture could develop accommodation facilities, hotels, and other services. Only the port development had been the subject of the initial tender. Strategic investor status is important because this is one of the ways a private company or joint venture can get access to lease state-owned land at a low cost, and obtain faster administrative treatment and relief from paying  certain communal taxes. 

With this decision, the four companies in the joint venture that won the tender for the port also were awarded a lease – for one euro, essentially for free  – for 57,502 square meters of the adjacent state land to construct residential buildings, accommodation facilities, and other services supporting the marina. This occurred without any announcement of a competition for developing the adjacent sites.

Four months later, on July 30, 2021, the Albanian Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy and the winning joint venture signed the concession agreement for the port, using the public-private partnership (PPP) model. Then, on August 10, 2021, the joint venture companies established an Albanian based firm named Marina Vlorë.  On September 3, 2021, they formed yet another joint company, Marina Residences Vlorë, with ownership distributed as follows: Marina di Valona at 60%, Brunes at 20%,%, and Ndregjoni at 10%., and British company Marina Projects Ltd at 10%.

This second company was created to manage the “additional investments” mentioned in the concession agreement for the Vlorë marina project, and received a 20-year lease essentially for free. 

“There should be another tender”

Based on the Albanian Governmental Committee for Strategic Investments’ decision to grant strategic investor status to the consortium, the Government of Edi Rama approved the signing of a lease agreement (Albanian: Kontratë Qiraje) on October 13, 2021. This agreement, between the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the marina concessionaires, covers 57,502 m² of state land for the additional projects, such as apartments.

The Government’s statement notes:

“The joint venture comprising Marina di Valona LLC , Brunes LLC , Ndregjoni LLC , and Marina Projects Ltd received the concession for the port of Vlorë. In addition to the investments within the concession, the lessee, through a special purpose entity established for this purpose, plans to invest in various service and support structures focused on tourism, as well as the construction of several civil, commercial, and accommodation facilities.”

These steps that led to the essentially free award of state land raised suspicions from Rama’s opponents about the true intent of the project. It appears that the government’s unannounced goal was more than merely transforming the trading port into a yacht marina; it also involved the construction of new luxury buildings that would be an unannounced part of the port deal.

“This reasoning given by the Government leaves the impression that securing the concession for the port was a prerequisite for acquiring the additional 57,502 square meters of state land, essentially leading to the lease of that land for 1 euro,” said Endrit Shabani, President of the Thurje (eng. Hashtag #) that holds no seats in Parliament but has made a name for itself by positioning itself as an anti-corruption party.

Shabani spoke  in Tirana in an interview with IRL, He suspects there may be corruption and misconduct in the Vlorë port and adjacent development projects. 

Shabani and his party filed a criminal complaint on March 26, 2024  with the Special Anti-Corruption Structure (SPAK), an independent judicial body in Tirana, requesting an investigation into what they believe are questionable aspects of the tender and the allocation of state land following the port concession tender. He said an additional tender should have been announced for the property adjacent to the Vlorë port. Albanian law also suggests that is the case.

After learning that state land was awarded without a properly announced and administered competitive tender, IRL reviewed the Albanian Law on Concessions and Public-Private Partnerships (Law 125/2013). Albanian government documents say that a new tender is necessary in certain cases of PPP concessions in Albania. The law, in Article 31, paragraph 4, states:

“Changes to the essential terms of the contract that are not provided in the tender documentation and/or in the contract itself require a new procedure for concluding a public-private partnership contract.”

The law defines “essential terms” as those that, if included in the original tender documentation, would allow bidders to submit significantly different offers. In this case, it could cover the state’s grant of the additional 57,502 m² of land next to the port for just 1 euro in rent.

At the meeting with Shabani, of the political party Thurje, IRL reporters asked Shabani whether this issue was addressed in the complaint the party filed with the SPAK.

“The fact that they were granted these almost 58,000 m² of land on the very day they took over the port casts doubt on the entire process. It suggests that some businessmen might have had access to privileged information, which would be a violation of the law,” Shabani stated.

“This represents the first indication of illegality and raises suspicions that the entire project could be part of a corrupt scheme,” he said.

In Thurje’s complaint with SPAK, the plaintiffs argue that the announcement of the port concession winner was secretly part of a plan for the consortium to then use to obtain a lease of state land adjacent to the port for a nominal price of €1. 

Thurje also argued that the winners may have had early access to privileged information about the full details of the tender, such as the availability of adjacent land to develop luxury housing, information that was unavailable to others in the public or other bidders.

“However, from the time of publication of this contract and the tender documentation, doubts arise as to whether this information was known to all interested operators who, had they been informed of all the conditions, could have participated in the tender. Acting contrary to the legal provisions in this case, it is possible that the principle of equality for participation in public tenders was violated, causing damage to the legal interests of the state,” the complaint from Thurje said.

Lawsuit and Suspicions of Forgery

The Thurje party began as a student anti-corruption movement in 2018 and won some municipality councils seats at the local elections in 2023. Thurje is not the only group to complain formally about possible corruption within the Vlorë port concession.

Previously, the opposition Democratic Party’s branch in Vlorë had reported concerns to SPAK, but their focus was on the financial offer of the selected consortium compared to the offers from the two disqualified Albanian firms, which the Democratic Party claimed had made a better offer. There is no information about the outcome of the Democratic Party’s complaint.

“Given the coinciding timing of the two contracts, it is worth investigating whether the companies involved in the tender had been given privileged information about the full circumstances of the tender, which could constitute a criminal act. Additionally, it should be investigated whether the change in ownership of “Marina Residences Vlorë” violates the provisions of Law 125/2013,” says the Thurje submission to SPAK.

Thurje also said there were irregularities and changes in documents to ease the way for the development project next to the port.The Albanian government decided that the consortium could receive a lease for  €1 euro for the state land and tasked the Ministry of Finance and Economy with implementing this decision. According to Thurje, the document out of public view underwent changes in wording.

The term “through a special subject established for that purpose” was changed to “as a special subject for that purpose (SPV),” which opened the way for the shareholders to change, Shabani said.

This raises the possibility that the process was designed to enable hidden beneficiaries, which Thurje said would be illegal. Several companies may have entered a fictitious competition to meet the required economic, technical, and expert criteria, only to withdraw after the competitive procedures were completed, leaving the management to the actual winners.

“The text was altered, and we consider this to be a forgery. It was a premeditated falsification, not an accident, that created the opportunity for the manipulation that followed,” said Shabani.

What followed was a change in partners within the “Marina Residences Vlorë” entity, with Samir Mane’s Balfin Group joining the consortium.  Although Balfin was not initially part of Marina Residences Vlorë, Balfin joined the company after two others left it.

Special Purpose Subject (SPV) for the residential buildings

Investigative Reporting Lab also found that there are specific requirements that do not appear to have been met during the two deals. Once an economic operator or consortium is awarded a concession through a public-private partnership – it is sometimes required to form a Special Purpose Subject (SPV). 

That is regulated by Albanian Law 125/2013 on Concessions and Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). Special Purpose Subject (SPV) is defined as a private firm with headquarters in Albania that is established by the winner of some tenders and as part of a public-private partnership.

In Vlorë, there was a tender solely for a 35-year port concession through a PPP. Thus, an SPV could have been formed for that project.  The state property of 57,502 m² next to the port was not part of this tender but was allocated based on the consortium’s given status as a strategic investor. However, the consortium then should not have been able to form an SPV for the adjacent property. 

Article 39, paragraph 2 of the Law on Concessions and PPPs states: 

“2. The special purpose subject (SPV) may participate in only one concession-PPP agreement for which it was established.”

The Ministry of Finance and Economy listed “Marina Residences Vlorë” as an SPV entity. 

IRL consulted a legal expert in Tirana to clarify this situation. The law-expert Elvana Tivari told us that a SPV can be established only in cases of a tender and within the Concession and Public-Private Partnership Law.

“SPV is a company established exclusively for the implementation of the relevant concession agreement or Public-Private Partnership (PPP). The successful bidder (usually a consortium of companies) forms an SPV after the contract is awarded but before it is signed. The members of the consortium are registered as partners/shareholders in the company according to pre-agreed percentages (according to the obligations declared in the stage of submission of bids). It is the SPV that signs the contract,” Tivari says.

IRL asked if such an entity can be established within the framework of the Law on Strategic Investments?

“The Strategic Investments Law does not provide a SPV to be used as an instrument in such cases,” Tivari told us.

Having the status of an SPV entity may mean easier access to some sources of credit, but IRL did not find evidence that would support Shabani’s claim that this status also affects changing the ownership structure in the company “Marina Residences Vlorë”.

On July 22, IRL asked SPAK if they were processing Thurje’s complaint. One week later the spokeswoman Suela Çollaku answered: “We have no information or comment to share with the media.”

However, the reporters found that SPAK has started an investigation.

“We are limited in sharing the requested information, as a result of the investigative secrecy of the investigation initiated by the Prosecutor’s Office”, the Ministry informed the journalists after they requested the institution to provide them the documents where the companies that won the tender for the marina confirm that they have experience in building world-class marinas.

Withdrawal of key British company experienced in elite marina design

The appearance and rapid withdrawal of a British company is particularly noteworthy as IRL examined the awarding of concessions at the Vlorë port and their transfer to a private joint venture.

Marina Projects Ltd. was a company of remarkable importance to the winning joint venture because it was the only one that could demonstrate it had the required experience designing world class marinas through a portfolio, a key criterion for receiving the concession. In its submissions to Albanian institutions, the company reported its address in Great Britain as “Suite 8 Bourne Gate, 25 Bourne Valley Road, Poole, Dorset, BH12 1DY,” with a web address of “marinaprojects.com.” Geoff Phillips is listed as the owner.

But after the contract for a lease of 1 euro for the adjacent land between the state and the concessionaires was signed, Marina Projects Ltd. abruptly withdrew from the advantageous business deal in Vlorë after barely two months, without providing any explanation to the public.

Documents regarding the ownership structure that Investigative Reporting Lab found show that the British left the Vlorë marina joint venture on November 15, 2021.

In the next month, Marina Projects Ltd. withdrew from Marina Residences Vlorë. Soon after, the Albanian company Ndregjoni also left Marina Vlorë on January 6, 2022. The next day, Ndregjoni withdrew from Marina Residences Vlorë as well.

The Albanian company Marina di Valona, owned by Albanian businessman Geront Çela, part of the joint venture and also the owner of Brunes, appears as the buyer of the shares of Marina Projects Ltd. and Ndregjoni in both companies. That leaves Marina di Valona and Brunes as the only companies that are part of both the Marina project and Marina Residences Vlorë, the adjacent project.

IRL sent questions to Marina Projects Ltd. on June 17 2024, asking why they withdrew from the project in Vlorë and to whom and for how much money they sold their share in the consortium? We did not receive a response.

Then, on June 20, IRL sent more inquiries to Marina Projects Ltd, asking if they had provided or still provide expertise to anyone in Albania for the construction of the marina? We did not receive a response to this question either.

In the tender documents for the concession of the port (pages 30 and 31 of the tender), it is stated that if one of the companies in the joint venture withdraws, the contracting authority (the state) can extend the contract with another entity from the joint venture “under the condition it has the legal, economic, financial, and technical capacity to implement the agreement. Otherwise, the contracting authority may withdraw from the agreement.”

After the companies withdrew, the only companies left to implement the awarded tender for the port concession through a PPP were the domestic Albanian companies Marina di Valona and Brunes. However, IRL’s review of their portfolios at the non-governmental business web-aggregate “opencorporates.al” shows they lack experience in building elite marinas.

“Based on the information we have, the current concessionaires do not meet the initial conditions of the publicly announced tender,”  Shabani, president of Thurje, told IRL.

Who is going to build the marina in Vlorë?!

If the companies that remain to the consortium which won the tender to build the tourist marina for yachts lack the necessary experience, has the tender been violated, and should the state terminate the contract?

On July 18, IRL wrote to the Albanian Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, the authority responsible for the port tender asking which companies remain in Marina Vlorë and which of them have the experience necessary to build elite marinas and carry out the project. They replied that “answering this question is not competence of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy”. The Ministry assured us that our questions were forwarded towards the Albanian National Business Center (QKB). IRL never got any answer from that institution.

In the meantime, IRL obtained documents showing that the contract for the purchase and sale of the 10% stake held by the British firm Marina Projects Ltd in Marina Vlorë was concluded on November 30, 2021, and purchased by Albanian company Marina di Valona, part of the joint venture. Until that point, Marina di Valona owned 60% of the property, but after the purchase, its ownership increased to 70%. The sale amount was 2,000 euros, documents show.

But despite these changes, on December 1, 2023, the British company Marina Projects Ltd. announced on its website something that does not match the documents IRL has seen.

Marina Projects Ltd said that within the framework of a joint venture, it had won a tender for the construction of a marina in Vlorë. But it had already withdrawn from the project two years earlier, in 2021.

Marina Projects Ltd did not respond to requests to explain this discrepancy.

Meanwhile an ecological incident took place at Vlorë port construction site where the accommodation facilities fundations are under construction, after controversial murky water was being poured into the Vlorë gulf. As one video streamed on Instagram on August 21, 2024 it was a waste water from the construction site that was dumped into the Adriatic sea just a few meters from the site. The title of the video was: “Pollution at the port of Vlorë in the middle of the tourist season. No one is responsible.”

The “Vlora Marina” office reacted to this video by denying that the water was  waste-water. According to them, it was for the removal of rain water.

Some of the news within the Internet news-platforms vanished soon after they published the news about the dump water case. That was the case with the site zeri.al which was mysteriously erased.

Samir Mane enters Marina Residences Vlorë, then leaves

The withdrawal of companies from the project was not limited to the specially formed joint venture for the construction of the marina but also occurred within the company formed for the construction of accommodation facilities next to the marina.

In January 2022, the company Ndregjoni withdrew from Marina Residences Vlorë. 

IRL has a copy of the purchase agreement, which shows that the buyer of Ndregjoni’s 10% share is again Marina di Valona, the same company that purchased the shares of the British Marina Projects Ltd. The purchase price was 1 euro (100 Albanian Lekë).

In this way, Marina di Valona, owned by Geront Çela, acquired 80% of the ownership of Marina Residences Vlorë. The remaining 20% ​​belongs to Brunes, a sister company of Marina di Valona.

Then in June 2022, Samir Mane’s Balfin Group entered the business in Vlorë, ​​acquiring 10% of the Marina Residences Vlorë, the  company responsible for building the luxury residential project. How did that happen?

The decision was made at a meeting of the member companies of Marina Residences Vlorë on June 15, 2022, after Balfin first expressed interest in becoming a partner and injecting new capital into Marina Residences Vlorë, written records of the meeting show. The then co-owners agreed, resulting in Marina di Valona selling 8% of its share and Brunes selling 2% to Balfin.

This transaction made Balfin the owner of 10% of Marina Residences Vlorë for approximately 30,000 euros. Samir Mane’s Balfin’s entry into the National Business Center of Albania was officially recorded on June 24, 2022.

Balfin, Brunes and Marina di Valona, co-owners of Marina Residences Vlorë, in August 2023 organized a formal ceremony to publicly promote their partnership and the entire Vlora Marina project, including the port and the entire complex with apartments, a hotel, residential buildings, and commercial space.

Balfin began offering apartments for sale and opened a sales office for its Albanian project in the center of Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia.

Albanian state institutions subsequently issued permits for the construction of three buildings (D4, C3, and C5) out of a total of 14 planned buildings that comprise the Vlora Marina project.

But just 4 months after the promotive ceremony, in December 2023 and a mere year and a half after it joined, Balfin left Marina Residences Vlorë.

This withdrawal occurred following a meeting of partners within Marina Residences Vlorë on December 6, 2023, at the joint company’s headquarters in Tirana. According to the records of the meeting, which IRL has obtained, the first item on the agenda was that “the partner Balfin expressed its desire to leave the joint firm by withdrawing the decision of June 15, 2022.” The document does not provide the reason for the decision by Samir Mane’s Balfin. It also does not clarify whether Balfin retains rights to any of the three buildings for which building permits were issued, based on eventual internal agreements within Marina Residences Vlorë with the other co-owners. But Balfin’s public posture at the Vlorë sales office and in advertisements is that the company remains involved.

Following this, only Marina di Valona and Brunes remained in Marina Residences Vlorë, despite Balfin’s presence at the Vlorë sales office and in advertisements in Albania and North Macedonia. 

Albanian government records show that neither Balfin nor Samir Mane now have any ownership in Marina Residences Vlorë.

Yet, the Balfin Group’s official website still claims that Vlora Marina is their project:

“Vlora Marina stands out as one of the most ambitious projects undertaken by BALFIN Group, with the aim of positioning the city of Vlora as a prominent destination for luxury yachts on international routes, competing directly with established regional marinas,” Balfin’s website says. 

At the beginning of July, IRL reporters visited the offices of Vlora Marina, located just a hundred meters from the construction site in Vlorë. When we asked the sales agent who will be responsible for constructing the buildings in Vlora Marina, he replied, “The project is being built by Balfin.”

He provided us with advertising material for the available apartments and requested our email addresses to send the full offer. The material prominently featured the name Balfin Group. The agent also informed us that construction of the first buildings is scheduled to begin in September 2024.

IRL asked Balfin the following questions: Why did they leave Marina Residences Vlorë? Why haven’t they announced this departure to the public for over 9 months? Why do they still publicly claim in the sales office and on the Balfin website that Vlora Marina is their project? What is their possible legal relationship with Brunes and Marina di Valona regarding the construction and/or sale of the properties?

Balfin didn’t answer any of them.

IRL then asked the companies Brunes and Marina di Valona if they eventually had some agreement with Balfin concerning the real estate selling within Marina Residences Vlorë projects? We also asked Brunes and Marina di Valona if they have the necessary experience for constructing a world class marina in Vlorë? They didn’t answer the questions.

Even in the hot summer months, during peak tourist season, construction machines in the “1 May” neighborhood in Vlorë are working non-stop. The development of a new road leading to the elite port is in full swing. Residents whose homes are slated for demolition told us that bulldozers could arrive at any moment, though some have managed to secure a delay until the end of August.

“Either I will enter the bucket of the bulldozer and be thrown into the bin along with the garbage, or I will go to live by the sea under an umbrella, because I have nowhere to go,” resident Rukie Shabani told IRL reporters with a piles in her hands holding old documents, bills and court orders for her home as they left the settlement for the last time.

The general value by which old houses are assessed is around 500 euros per square meter. Just a few hundred meters from the settlement, unbuilt apartments in the Vlora Marina complex are already being offered for sale at as much as 2,500 euros per square meter.

Despite the Tourist and Construction Boom, Albanians are Moving Out

Contrary to the continuous, moderate, but stable growth of the Albanian economy (GDP growth in 2023 was 2.3%, in 2022 4.8%, in 2021 7.2%, and in 2020 3.4%), more and more young people are leaving the country.

According to research by the Albanian Center for Good Governance, an(independent non-governmental think-tank formed in 2014 in Tirana, with support from the German Konrad-Adenauer Foundation, Albanians  are increasingly disinterested in political party offerings. The biggest issues they face are insufficient income and a low standard of living, with corruption, unemployment, and poor health conditions being among the most troubling, the Good Governance Center found.

Despite economic growth, a 2021 survey by the Center revealed that 52.31% of respondents said their financial situation had worsened compared to the previous year, 38.73% reported no change, and only 8.96% said they were earning more. In an interview with IRL, Arben Çejku, the director of the Center, who previously served as Albania’s ambassador to North Macedonia, said that migration from Albania initially drained the villages but is now “draining the cities.”

According to Çejku, the main reasons for emigration from Albania are unemployment, lack of support for small and medium enterprises, absence of EU membership, and the prolonged transition period to attain EU membership.

“Another factor driving mass emigration is the lack of justice, i.e. inequality before the law, widespread corruption, and pervasive impunity,” he adds.