“Comment is free, but facts are sacred.” — C. P. Scott, 1921.
Second call also fails: government cannot find investors for the National Library
Erblin Vukaj · Originally published: 25 April 2025
Construction of the new National Library appears to have reached a dead end. The Albanian Investment Corporation (KISH) cancelled its second call to attract investors because of a lack of interest.
The latest call, reopened on 13 March after the first call failed (10 January–10 February), had an application deadline of 7 April. In return for building the library, it offered the private investor the right to build a tower on one of Tirana’s most coveted plots, in the area of the former German villas.
But even this incentive appears to have failed to generate genuine investor interest.
This is the second cancellation in less than four months for a project conceived with major public ambitions as far back as 2020.
The Library project
The National Library is set to move from its central location in the Palace of Culture to the former Republican Guard site at the entrance to the Artificial Lake Park.
Conceived by Xavier De Geyter (XDGA) and the local practice iRI in 2020, the project envisages a complex of buildings called “Pieces, Hospitality and The New Building of The National Library”.
It includes a 14-storey hotel (the multifunctional building envisaged in TR/169) being built by Nova Construction, and the Puppet Theatre (National Cultural Centre for Children), currently nearing completion.
The reasons for the delay in building the new National Library are unclear. But the Corporation obtained use of the proposed land through a Council of Ministers decision approved only on 9 January 2025, and opened the first call for investors the following day.
The Corporation required the investor to demonstrate financial stability and liquidity for an investment of 8.5 million euros, in return for the right to use more than 5 thousand square metres of land on Gramoz Pashko Street to build up to 60 thousand square metres of floor space, in practice a tower of more than 20 storeys.
No competition, no accountability, no transparency
In an in-depth article published on 1 April in Citizens.al, we criticised the lack of transparency and consistent reasoning in the Corporation’s handling of the calls.
The first call opened in early January with a 30-day deadline. It was extended and then cancelled for lack of interest. It was subsequently reopened on the same terms, raising doubts about the Corporation’s seriousness and institutional capacity to manage projects of public importance such as the National Library.
While the country suffers from a shortage of public spaces devoted to culture and knowledge (the National Museum, National Theatre, Art Gallery and others are currently closed or under construction), the idea of “compensating” investors for building the National Library with a permit for a high-rise development looks more like a real-estate development scheme than a public policy for culture.
After two successive failures, it is clear that the market is not interested in this investment formula, or at least not on the Corporation’s terms. The question that naturally arises is: Is the National Library a real priority for the government, or simply a justification for enabling another construction project in the heart of Tirana?
If the aim is to build a modern institution of knowledge and culture, then it should be financed as a public project, with public funds and a long-term vision, rather than pointlessly delegated to private developers.
The experience of the National Theatre, which began with a similar scheme and ended up as a public investment, shows that, when political will exists, ways to finance a project can be found.