14/04/08

President, Millennium group

Alban Xhillari’s first high-profile venture was the construction of the Millennium Cinema in Tirana in the early 1990s when the capital had few entertainment venues other than noisy cafés and bars. “It made a huge difference being

 
able to see foreign films in a comfortable environment,” he says. He has since used profits from building apartment blocks in the city’s new residential districts to finance several high-end office and commercial buildings projects designed by international architects as part of central Tirana’s redevelopment plan.
Construction is under way on the first project, the American Business Centre, located in the Blokk, a mixed residential and commercial district where the communist elite used to live. Gleeds, an international construction management consultancy, is project manager.
“We need some imaginative new architecture to define the 21st century capital, but we have to make sure we build to European Union standards,” Mr Xhillari says. Outside the capital, he has launched a €20m project to convert the former summer palace of King Zog, an art deco building on a hilltop above Durres with a spectacular view over the Adriatic, into a small luxury resort.