Plans for a A$1.5bn ($1.1bn)
Trump Tower on Queensland's Gold Coast have been scrapped three months after the deal was announced, with Australian developer Altus Property Group blaming the "toxic"
Trump brand and the Iran war. The 91-storey luxury hotel had been billed at launch as Australia's tallest building at 335 metres, taller than London's Shard, the BBC reported, and the Trump Organization has since removed project details from its website.
"With the Iran war and everything else, the Trump brand was increasingly toxic in Australia," Altus chief executive David Young said in a statement, the BBC reported. "Some time ago we knew it was time to part company." Young said the development would continue with other luxury brands as options. The Trump Organization disputed that characterisation: Kimberly Benza, director of executive operations, said Altus had failed to meet "the most basic financial obligation due upon the execution of the agreement" and described Young's framing as "merely a ploy to distract from his own defaults and failures."
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the local council had not received a development application for the site and described the collapse as a private dispute over profit margins, the BBC reported. "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 said. Benza added that the company looked forward to "exploring other potential projects and bringing a Trump property to Australia soon."
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.