A developer for what was supposed to be Australia’s first Trump Tower cited the “toxic” image behind U.S. President Donald Trump’s name as the reason why the plan was scrapped this week, less than three months after it was announced.
“Let’s just say that with the Iran war and everything else, the Trump brand was increasingly toxic in Australia,” Altus Property Group chief executive and founder David Young told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “Some time ago, we knew it was time to part company.”
The planned 91-story Trump International Hotel & Tower, Gold Coast was “set to become the tallest building in Australia and one of the most prominent beachfront addresses in the country,” the property group said in February.
However, the initial project amassed backlash from the public, with an online petition launched to stop the development garnering more than 140,000 signatures. The petition claimed that “many residents are deeply uncomfortable with the Trump brand and what it represents.”
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization told Australian Broadcasting Company that Young’s company had failed to “meet the most basic financial obligation.”
The property group’s CEO told his side of the story in a post on LinkedIn.
“This is an ongoing project and behind the headlines there are facts and the major point is being in recent events the brand in this country has become toxic to Australians,” Young wrote. “Not my word in any sense.”
He added that “the writing was on the wall when the war started.”
He went on to object to the Trump Organization’s “toxic” image amongst Australians, stating that it’s “grossly unfair as the brand has nothing to do” with the president.
“Trump Org is a non-political, free of the President run organization by Eric and Don Jr and run well with over 136 resorts and towers globally yet here in Australia both the media and certain orgs paint a picture of Donald Trump for pure sensationalism.”
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The CEO then lashed out at opponents, name-checking the Australian progressive activist group Get Up, which he claimed doesn’t “care as they are equally toxic, professional and paid for protesters.”
“They say they have 120,000 signatures to stop a project already approved with a DA,” Young said. “Would it surprise anyone to know that less than 10% of those signatures are from the Gold Coast?”
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he believes the plan fell through because of profit margins.
“The Trump Organization wants a lot more for their brand on the funding side of things, to operate it and the percentage of return,” Tate told the outlet. “[Meanwhile] the developer’s going, ‘Well, I’m putting in all of my money in and you’re actually going to take quite a lot of profit’, so I think that’s why they’re parting ways.”
Young told LinkedIn followers there is no “acrimony” between him and the Trump family.
“Why would there be after knowing them for 19 years when no one here then even knew who Donald Trump was,” Young wrote.
As for the Altus project, Young said the tower will proceed, but without the Trump name behind it.
“It is pure business,” he said. “My team and I look forward to completing the project and as an old expression goes, ‘never let the truth get in the way of a good story.’”