Mother Jones
Trump Business Partner Promises New Tower Won’t Be as Tacky as Australians Fear
Donald Trump’s newest business partner is assuring Australians that the Trump Tower he’s building Down Under won’t be nearly as tacky as they fear.
On Monday, David Young—who runs the Queensland-based Altus Property Group—announced that the $1 billion Gold Coast development would contain 91 floors, 270 apartments, and a “6-star” resort. It will briefly be the continent’s tallest building, though a neighboring property, already approved for construction, will quickly surpass it. Young said his deal with the Trump Organization was signed earlier this month at Mar-a-Lago.
It’s just the latest foreign business entanglement from the Trump Organization, which is run by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. but is still owned by the president. Recently, the Trump brand has launched real estate projects in Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
Importantly, Young wants to make clear that the Australian development won’t actually be ugly. In a statement trumpeting the deal, he noted there were certain “misconceptions” about Trump properties.
“Firstly, the file footage that Australians see, of Trump hotels and resorts with gaudy gold-plated bathrooms fixtures, mirrors and heavy chandeliers, is old footage from the 1980s and 90s,” Young said. “The modern Trump package is high-end design and fit outs, with a premium feel. It’s tasteful and expensive – when you walk into a modern Trump property, the impression is ‘quality’ and ’boutique.'”
According to Young, the new property “will follow the same Trump design manual” as the ongoing Trump projects in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Based on renderings in an Instagram post from Eric Trump, it will also be very large and gold-colored.
The terms of the deal are not clear. Trump has historically licensed his brand to foreign partners, with upfront payments for the use of his name, followed by years of royalties and a management deal, under which the Trump Organization gets paid to run properties. In his statement, Young specified that the project would be Australian-owned and built. “It is an Altus subsidiary, Altus Resorts Pty Ltd, that makes the decisions on the fit-out, within the Trump design requirements,” he said. “It will be an Australian, not American, project. It won’t have a Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton brand above the front door, but it will say ‘Trump.'”
Still, the magnates involved in the deal hail from places far beyond Australia and Florida. Young disclosed in his statement that the financing would come from unnamed investors in Singapore, Hong Kong, the UAE, and the United States. Meanwhile, it appears that the property the building will be built on is currently owned by a casino titan from Macau.
Neither the Trump Organization nor Altus responded to requests for comment on the terms of the deal or the identity of the investors.