In Tirana, major investments are carried out through non-transparent permits that aggressively exploit urban space.
The case of the former Sheraton hotel, turned into a giant construction project by the Kastrati group, is a typical illustration of this model lacking transparency.
Instead of a development in harmony with the Lake Park, Kastrati enjoyed increased intensity and additional floors in the project that never saw a building permit issued and changed at least twice in two years.
The new look of the "old project"
For weeks, work at the construction site of the former "Sheraton" hotel between the "National Arena" and the Polytechnic University of Tirana (UPT) has increased significantly.
From above, the central building has begun to be dressed with the zigzag concept of the new modular facade, conceived by Marco Casamonti, the Italian architect who "topped" the former "Qemal Stafa" stadium.
The hotel, a symbol of Tirana's luxury in the early 2000s, will no longer have its glass facade and will be surrounded by a complex of six towers up to 15 stories high.
On all sides of the construction site, large blocks with facade materials are visible, which are different from those advertised in the project's renderings.
It all started in February 2018 when Leonardi, the son of entrepreneur Shefqet Kastrati, announced on Instagram the agreement to purchase the former Sheraton.
"The former Sheraton hotel now belongs to the Kastrati company, as soon as the transaction was closed," he announced.
Two months before the sale, the American hotel company "Sheraton" removed its name from the "MAK Albania" hotel, formalizing its departure from Albania.
MAK Albania was founded in 1992 by the Kuwaiti Mohamed Abdulmohsin Al-Karafi family, which secured land and incentives from the government of the time as a "strategic investor" for the development of tourist complexes in Tirana, Dajti, and the Kavaja coast.
Part of the incentive was the land on the edge of Lake Park, next to UPT. The Al-Karafi family began building the hotel in 1993, but was able to complete it as a subsidiary of the well-known "Sheraton" brand only in the early 2000s.
In 2018, the media reported that Kastrati bought MAK Albanian for 30 million euros. But the sales contract shows that the building was purchased for 18 million. The rest was a guarantee to repay debts and loans taken over the years.
The 2017 balance sheet shows that MAK Albania had around 14.5 million euros in liabilities, but a capital of around 95 million euros (around 12 billion lek) in assets, buildings and land.
This situation seems to have created the possibility of a deal for the Kastrati family, which took the place of the Kuwaiti oligarchs.
During that period, Kastrati strongly entered the construction sector in the capital with other hotel, residence and office projects, where the "Downtown One" project on Elbasan Street stood out.
Non-transparent investment plans
About a year after purchasing the former Sheraton, Kastrati secured development permits from the government for a major expansion project.
Archea (Marco Casamonti) and X-Plan (Ornela Muçaj) studios proposed expanding the existing hotel and erecting six 7-13-story towers around it.
The initial concept envisaged 121 thousand m2 construction (69 665 m2 above ground) at 30,000 m2 land with intensity 2.32 and utilization coefficient 44.3%. The project envisaged 3-4 floors of underground parking.
The development permit was secured on November 8, 2019The government delegated the authority to issue construction permits to the Tirana municipality, which has never made these documents public.
However, the law requires the builder to display the permit obtained on a visible sign at the construction site. In Kastrati's case, it was never seen, not even after the date 10 June 2021 when it received a new development permit from the government.
The new concept in the second permit envisaged an increase of about 36% of the construction area above ground (from 69,665 m2 at 108,827 m2) increasing the intensity to 3.6, with heights of up to 15 floors and parking lots 5 floors underground.
It is not clear when the Tirana municipality granted Kastrati the first construction permit – let alone the second permit – but satellite images show that the crane was erected on the former “Sheraton” complex a month before the initial development permit was granted by the government: October 2019.
The Municipality of Tirana, the Kastrat company, and the architecture studios did not respond to Citizens.al's requests for information or comment on this issue.
The case is similar to the "Downtown One" project on Elbasan Road, also from Kastrati.
The development permit was granted by the government on April 14, 2017 for a 36-story tower with 62,000 m2 construction area, intensity 16.26 and land use coefficient 45%. The granting of the construction permit was delegated to the Tirana municipality, which did not make it public.
What is known is that Kastrati began work in parallel with the excavations that were carried out at the former "7 Dwarves" park as part of the project for the construction of an underground public parking lot.
The project in question began in January 2018, about eight months after Kastrati received development permission for the tower.
On the same date that he obtained a second development permit for the former Sheraton, Kastrati obtained a review of the development permit for "Downtown One".
In the new permit dated 10 June 2021 The structure gained 4 stories in height, but only added 92 m.2 total area. For this change, Kastrati released about 5% land use coefficient for public purposes for a total of 60.5%.
It is not clear why this revision to the permit was necessary, where practically no construction area was gained. But it is likely that it was done to legitimize excavations outside the property boundary in the construction of the tower's parking lot.
Kastrati has begun excavations up to "Fatmir Haxhiu" street, a section of which has been being reworked with reinforced concrete in recent days (photo 2023; photo 2025).
Possible violations are also found in the former Sheraton project.
At the beginning of 2022, Kastrati fenced off the front section while continuing work on the underground parking lot.
Satellite images show that the company also fenced off about 1,800 square meters beyond the hotel's existing road. This intervention was not foreseen in either of the two development permits – the only public documents.
A new road was opened next to the UPT on what Cadastral maps indicate to be property 7/18 of Zone 8160. Thus, Kastrati expanded underground to the border of his property and gained a road that leads directly to the entrance to the parking lot.
Shadowy movements of "strategic investors"
The development of the former Sheraton was started by Kastrati in partnership with entrepreneur Samir Mane, but today it is unclear whether the same partnership continues.
The first development permit for the former Sheraton listed as developers the Kastrati group companies (Kastrati Residences and Kastrati Hotels & Tower) and Mak Elite Offices (MEO), a company founded in 2017 by entrepreneur Mane's Balkan Finance Investment Group (Balfin).
The documents show that in February 2018 - that is, when Kastrati bought the former Sheraton - the group also bought 700% of Mane's shares in the "Downtown One" project, which were owned by BFI Invest - another Balfin company, for 50 thousand lek.
It is not clear how Balfin withdrew from a project like "Downtown One" for so little money, when work had already begun.
On the other hand, we can say that MEO has not had a long run. This Balfin company increased its capital by around 180 thousand euros in 2020 and a year later suspended and deregistered its activity.
Balfin did not respond to a request for comment from Citizens.al on whether she was still involved in the investment in the former Sheraton, even though she is no longer mentioned in the second development permit.
The Kastrati project was sensationally advertised by Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj that it would attract the international hotel brands Hyatt and Hilton as subsidiaries. In an announcement on its website, Hilton said that will be able to start work in the new premises by the end of 2023.
Both international brands did not respond to requests for comment from Citizens.al regarding the reason for the postponement of this deadline and the period when the works could be completed.
But the case of the former "Sheraton" shows that investments in the heart of Tirana are no longer a matter of development, but a demonstration of influence and power.
In a country where the law operates selectively and information is kept hidden, whoever has access to power gains the most. The city loses, the citizens lose.
He completed master's studies in Investigative Journalism at the Department of Journalism at the University of Tirana. She has been working as a journalist for five years, where she previously covered issues of politics and parliamentary activity, in print and online media. She is currently a journalist at Citizens.al, where she covers various social issues related to the transparency of institutions. At Citizens.al, she leads the podcast "The Unheard" and is engaged as a manager of projects related to the support of investigative journalism.
