This Just In: The $1.5-Billion Trump Tower Coming to the Gold Coast Has Been Cancelled, Citing Trump's 'Toxic Brand' in Australia
The deal to bring this controversial tower to the Gold Coast skyline has collapsed just months after it was agreed.
Earlier this year, the Gold Coast skyline was set to become home to its own Trump Tower, with the proposed $1.5-billion project slated as Australia's tallest building. But according to reports out today, the deal has collapsed just three months after it was struck.
With an agreement reached between the Altus Property Group and the Trump Organization to bring a luxury resort to Surfers Paradise, the controversial project aimed to construct a 91-storey tower on Rickett Street, packed with 272 luxury apartments, a 285-room resort hotel, an exclusive beach club and a retail plaza.
However, Altus Property Group chief executive and founder David Young has said the development will no longer go ahead, citing the ongoing war in Iran and the toxic nature of the Trump brand in Australia as reasons for the Trump Organization pulling out of the project.
"Let's just say that with the Iran war and everything else, the Trump brand was increasingly toxic in Australia," he said. "Some time ago, we knew it was time to part company."
At the time of the project's announcement, Gold Coast Acting Mayor Mark Hammel told the ABC that the council had yet to receive a formal development proposal on the tower. And according to the latest news, that application indeed was never lodged.
Yet the Altus Property Group is not giving hope of developing the site, which has sat vacant since 2013, even without the Trump Organization. In a statement to the ABC, Young said, "It was not about not meeting obligations. There are other luxury brand options for us. The project is live."
Read more via the ABC.
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Images: Altus Property Group.
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