brisbane, australia
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A vacant lot near the heart of the once-glam Gold Coast is set to become the site of Australia’s tallest tower – the first to bear Trump’s last name engraved on its top.
Australia’s Altus Property Group plans to build a 91-storey tower with a 285-room luxury six-star hotel, an upscale retail plaza, a Michelin-starred restaurant and residential apartments finished to Trump specifications.
Plans for the Trump International Hotel & Tower Gold Coast have not yet been submitted to Gold Coast City Council for approval, but they are already the talk of the waterfront district, and not everyone is in favor.
A petition to reject the plan had more than 26,000 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon, many of whom said they wanted nothing to do with the Trump brand.
One person who signed the online petition said: “Why would you want anything to do with President Trump coming to Japan? He is toxic and needs to stay away from Australia in every sense of the word,” while another commented: “This is the worst idea ever and we cannot allow something like this to happen!”
CK, who started the petition under a pseudonym to avoid backlash from Trump supporters, told CNN that he felt helpless after seeing scenes of “anti-immigrant violence and social division” in the United States on social media and was looking for a way to express his opposition.
“People believe I’m against job creation, but that’s simply not true.”
she said. “I’m just against the Trump brand.”
“Our goal is to go to Gold Coast Council and put this proposal forward and hope that they stop it,” she added.
Long-time Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate, an enthusiastic supporter of the plan, told Australian Radio on Tuesday that he recently had dinner with Trump at Florida’s Mar-a-Lago resort and found him “very, very likeable.”
Mr Tate is in the US for G’Day USA, an economic and diplomatic program that gives Australian and US dealmakers the opportunity to meet potential partners and build new relationships.
“It’s actually really incredible, and it’s all about quality,” Tate said of the planned Trump Tower.
For the council, anything that promises to inject funding into tourism destinations is welcome as the industry rebuilds after a difficult year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The planned construction site is currently vacant and has been abandoned since 2013, when a popular hotel was demolished due to concrete cancer.
“If we don’t build this landmark Trump Tower over there, it’s going to be empty again for the next 20 years,” said Jordan Nguyen, a cafe worker who started a petition to support construction.
“This proposal should be evaluated based on the merits of the plan and the benefits it can provide to the community, not political opinion.”
An apartment at Trump Tower on the Gold Coast is set to sell for A$5 million ($3.5 million) and has views of the Pacific Ocean and the beaches of Surfers Paradise, which is crowded with tourists during the summer.
Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce president Martin Hall hailed the development as a “gold option” for buyers in a growing market.
“There is certainly no shortage of cranes around the Gold Coast at the moment. Just looking at the skyline is enough,” he said.
“Given that the Olympic Games will be held in south-east Queensland and across Queensland in 2032, extra room space is welcome.”
Australian real estate developer David Young said he laid the groundwork for Trump Tower in 2007 by “wooing Ivanka Trump,” according to a blog post on the real estate group’s website.
Young, founder and CEO of Altus Property Group, recalled how he introduced himself to Trump’s daughter as an Australian property developer who said she was going to build “Australia’s best tourist destination in Surfers Paradise.”
Almost 20 years later, the deal was signed on February 14th at Mar-a-Lago with his brother Eric, and the painstaking process of drawing up blueprints and engineering plans to meet the terms of the Trump licensing agreement began.
“It will be an Australian project, not an American one. There will be no Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton branding above the front door, but it will say ‘Trump’,” Young said, according to comments published in The Australian.
It is unclear when the development application will be submitted or if it will be approved, but Mr Young expects the building to be completed by 2032, when Brisbane will host the Summer Olympics.
“This facility will be an iconic landmark on Surfers Paradise Beach, home to the wealthy, and will be completed before the start of the Olympics and will be ancillary tourism facility to the Olympics themselves,” Mr Young told the Australian Financial Review.
If approved, the 335-meter (1,099-foot) Gold Coast Trump Tower may not hold the title of Australia’s tallest building for long, if ever. That honor is likely to go to nearby One Park Lane, which is about 60 meters (195 feet) high.
