photo: WSJ
A new Trump-branded skyscraper is set to rise in the Caucasus, another example of how the Trump family firm has changed its approach to overseas business during the second Trump administration.
The Trump Organization and its partners plan to build Trump Tower Tbilisi, a roughly 70-story mixed-use project that would be the tallest building in the capital of Georgia, The Caspian Post reports via foreign media.
The tower would include luxury residences, retail and hotel-style amenities. It is being designed by the architecture firm Gensler and backed by a consortium that includes Georgia real-estate firm Archi Group and Biograpi Living, which is part of a Georgian conglomerate.
New York-based developer and previous Trump partner Sapir Organization is also involved in the project.
The Trump Organization has increasingly leaned on international licensing and branding deals as a core part of its business since the start of Donald Trump’s second administration. Critics say that such overseas ventures raise potential conflicts of interest.
Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons and an executive vice president at the firm, didn’t respond to a request for comment on this article.
In the past, he has disputed that his company’s foreign activities represent a conflict of interest, saying the Trump Organization’s business dealings are kept separate from administration policy.
Eric Trump said the Tbilisi development would extend the company’s “globally recognized standard of excellence” to Georgia.
The new project also revives an on-again, off-again history between the Trump brand and Georgia.
In 2012 the Trump Organization announced plans for a real-estate project in the Black Sea resort town of Batumi in Georgia. But the company stepped back from that project along with numerous other foreign deals because Donald Trump said he wanted to avoid the appearance of potential conflicts of interests.
The Trump Organization has taken a much more aggressive approach to foreign deals since President Trump took office for the second time, reflecting a view inside the company that it received little credit for voluntarily holding back during Trump’s first term.
Since Trump was re-elected, the company has launched a wave of new projects abroad-spanning markets including the Middle East, Vietnam and India.
Georgia itself occupies a geopolitically sensitive position, balancing relationships with the West while managing tensions with Russia. In recent years, it has also sought to attract foreign capital by promoting its business-friendly policies, relatively low taxes and growing tourism sector.
Archi Group, one of the lead partners, has been a dominant player in Georgia’s housing market, with more than 55 completed projects and tens of thousands of units delivered. Biograpi Living is backed by a major Georgian conglomerate with interests spanning energy, retail and real estate.
The Sapir Organization has developed high-profile properties in Manhattan and Miami and has longstanding relationships with the Trump family.
Chief executive Alex Sapir described the project in personal terms, noting in the release his family’s roots in Georgia and calling the development a way to “contribute in a meaningful way” to the country’s future.
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