Plan for Trump Tower in Australia scrapped as developer says brand has become ‘toxic’

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - SYDNEY — Plans to build Australia’s first Trump Tower in Queensland have been scrapped just three months after it was announced with the local developer blaming the "toxic" Trump brand and the Iran war for the project's demise.

It was claimed that the $1.1bn-, 91-story luxury hotel on the Gold Coast would be Australia's tallest building, measuring 335 meters (1,100 ft) high, taller than the Shard in London.

Details about the project have been deleted from the Trump Organization's website with a spokesperson saying the developer had not met obligations.

Altus Property Group denied those claims and maintained the project would continue with other luxury brands as options.

“Let’s just say that with the Iran war and everything else, the Trump brand was increasingly unpopular in Australia,” David Young, CEO of Altus, told CNN in a statement.

The project sparked backlash after it was announced by Altus and the Trump Organization, which is owned by US President Donald Trump but run by his sons Donald Jr. and Eric.

The luxury seaside property was the Trump Organization’s “first official project in Australia,” Eric Trump said at the time.

One petition aiming to stop the project garnered more than 140,000 signatures.

CK, who started the petition under an alias to avoid backlash from Trump supporters, told CNN in February she felt powerless while watching scenes of “anti-immigrant violence and the social division” in the US on social media, and looked for a way to express her opposition.

In a LinkedIn post Tuesday, the Altus CEO called the backlash to the Trump Tower “grossly unfair” but said “the brand in this country has become toxic to Australians.”

He said there is “no acrimony between the Trump family and myself” and he has been in discussions with “many high-end luxury plans” about the tower.

Young had laid the groundwork for the tower in 2007 with a “cold call to Ivanka Trump,” according to a blog post on the Altus website.

Young recalled introducing himself to Trump’s daughter as a property developer from Australia, who was intent on building “Australia’s finest tourist property at Surfers Paradise.”

Almost 20 years later, when the deal was signed, Young said the tower “will be an Australian, not American project,” according to comments published in The Australian newspaper.

He had anticipated the building could be ready before the Brisbane Olympics in 2032.

But Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate — who once dined with Trump in Mar-a-Lago and was an enthusiastic supporter of the project — said the local City Council had not received a development application for the site.

“This project was an agreement between two private parties,” Tate said in a statement to CNN, adding “we didn’t have a proposal to consider.”

Money could also have been a factor, according to Tate.

“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 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

A spokeswoman for the Trump Organisation said it had been "very excited" about the project, but had relied on it's "licensing partner meeting certain obligations".

"After months of negotiations and empty promise, after empty promise, on a supposed $1.5 billion project, Altus Property Group was unable to meet the most basic financial obligation due upon the execution of the agreement," Kimberly Benza, director of executive operations for the Trump Organization, said.

"Mr Young's attempt to blame certain world events for our termination of the agreement is merely a ploy to distract from his own defaults and failures."

She added that the company looked forward to "exploring other potential projects and bringing a Trump property to Australia soon".