The silent but rapid fading of the towers' euphoria

By Klodian Tomorri

The history of the world economy is replete with documented episodes of collective madness. Often they have turned into crises that have brought the economies of the world's great empires to their knees, like the Mississippi stock market crash or the South Sea bubble. In other cases, they have ruined the lives of thousands of individuals, like the Dutch Tulip Famine.

But despite the endless lessons of history, one of humanity's most fascinating traits is forgetfulness. Otherwise, crises of collective stupidity would not repeat themselves again and again.

Look at Albania. Although it has a short experience with a free economy, Albania has had several episodes of collective madness. First there were the pyramid schemes of 1996-1997. A few years later the crisis of confidence in the banking sector from the statements of a priest. And most recently, the euphoria of climbing to heights with 100-story skyscrapers, which took the form of collective madness four or five years ago. A kind of flying high, but with a leek from behind.

And yet, the collective stupidity of the high-rise towers is now being confronted with the cynical reality of possibilities, while those who thought they would soar have begun to come down to earth. Along with the rest.

In 2022, the National Territorial Council approved the development permit for a 60-story tower on Kavaja Street, named Bofill Tower, in honor of the Spanish architect who designed it. A year later, the tower's construction company also received a building permit. But today, almost 3 years later, there is neither a tower, nor a pit, nor even a fence at Volkswagen.

For three years in a row, Agron Papuli has tried every means to find financing for the 60-story tower. From trying to get a loan, to approaching other partners in the project, and finally to selling. But there is no loan. Investors as well, while buyers are not even mentioned.

Bofill Tower is not the only virtual skyscraper circulating in Tirana. In the center of Tirana is another one, also designed by Bofill, but with the exotic name Barcelona. It too has long received permission, but there is no construction site on site and the project is on the verge of cancellation.

Further on, somewhere in the unknown soldier is another 100-story madness, actually two, called Society Towers. These are two cylindrical towers, reaching up to 300 meters in height. And another cylindrical madness of almost 60 floors, is located on Gjergj Fishta Boulevard, at the former European University of Tirana. Not to mention the countless PDFs of the New Boulevard.

The more time passes, the more Tirana is being "invaded" by tall ghost towers that will never be built, and the collective madness is fading at the speed of light, as it collides with reality. Already, some of those who flew with the euphoria of skyscrapers have started to ask for lower floors. And that says a lot.

Those who thought they would finance the madness with money from somewhere had forgotten a small detail. Money laundering is when you inject dirty money into an economic activity in order to get back legitimate profits. When you inject dirty money in order to get nothing back, that is not money laundering, but a waste of money. And not even the stupidest criminals in the world burn their money in vain.

Fortunately for Albania, the collective stupidity of the 100-story towers did not infect the banks. The latter have stayed away from adventures and adventurers who seek to trade assets that they do not have. And it is important that this continues.

Because one thing is certain now. The euphoria of skyscrapers is fading fast. The most significant proof of this is the empty construction sites of ghost towers, but also an episode with a banker. He wanted a 9-story tower to build bank offices. But along the way, they told him to increase it to 16 floors and in the end, the permit ended up with 21 floors. Now the banker says in Tirana, where can I take the poor 10 floors?

And this is a strong signal for the Bank of Albania as well. The only channel for the collective madness of the towers to turn into a financial and economic crisis is the banking one. If this happens, the culprit will be none other than the Bank of Albania.