The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Dubai is due to be completed in 2031
- luxevariemagazine
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
‘Challenge everything. Stop at nothing.” It’s not the slogan for a perfume or a pair of trainers but the tagline for the latest Trump Tower in the Middle East.
Plans for the new 80-storey Trump International Hotel and Tower with private residences in Dubai were unveiled last week. It is the third Trump-branded project announced in the region in a matter of days, ahead of the US president’s official visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE later this month.
These licensing deals allow international developers to use the Trump family name for their luxury properties in exchange for a multimillion-dollar fee, hoping to capitalise on his name and power. Private residences in branded residences often sell for a premium over non-branded equivalents. In Dubai it is a premium that averages 42 per cent, according to Morgan’s International Realty.
The new projects in the Middle East and a handful of other markets (including India where eight Trump-branded projects are in the pipeline) are bucking a trend that, since Trump first became US president in 2017, saw his name coming off buildings around the world, from Washington DC to Vancouver, Toronto to Panama. His name is still above the door on more than a dozen Trump Towers around the world including the original on Fifth Avenue, completed in 1983, where the president and first lady own a lavish three-storey penthouse.
While critics argue that the deals represent an unprecedented conflict of interest for the US president, the White House, through a spokeswoman, rebutted that “there are no conflicts of interest” because “the president’s assets are in a trust managed by his children”. However, financial disclosure reports reveal that the president benefits financially from most of these ventures.
Due to be completed in 2031, the Dubai skyscraper is being built by Dar Global, a London-listed developer that is the subsidiary of one of the largest property companies in Saudi Arabia, Dar Al Arkan. It will be 350m tall, with “sweeping views of the Burj Khalifa” and will have the world’s highest outdoor swimming pool, available to residents and guests of the five-star hotel.
Dar has partnered with the Trump Organization for four other projects in the Gulf, including a $5.5 billion Trump International Golf Club in Doha, Qatar, in partnership with the state-controlled Qatari Diar, which was also announced last week; a Trump International Hotel and Golf Community in Muscat, Oman; a $2 billion Trump Tower in Jeddah, which started construction last month and is scheduled to be completed in 2029; and a Trump Tower in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh.
Among catchphrases such as “this is what winning looks like” and “every inch, a statement of dominance”, the Dar Global marketing brochure promises the Dubai project will be “the first and only Trump International Hotel and Tower in the Middle East”.
However, this is not the first time that a Trump Tower has been announced in the Gulf city. Twenty years ago, in 2005, Donald Trump announced a partnership with the Dubai government-owned company Nakheel, to build a hotel and residential tower on the Palm Jumeirah, the man-made archipelago. The 2008 global financial crisis killed the project, which was officially cancelled three years later.
“It’s their second tilt at the armour,” says Barnaby Crompton, the British managing partner at the Dubai-based estate agency Eden Realty. “It’s a big ask to elevate yourself above the head of so many branded residences. He does have a name that is quite divisive — he’s Marmite. But he does build good buildings and good communities.”
Crompton argues that the Trump International Golf Club in Dubai has been among the most successful in the region and the tower has the potential to be a success as well. “I don’t think his name would hinder him in these parts of the world,” Crompton says. “Potentially those buildings would do even better if they didn’t have his name above the door, but that’s just my personal opinion.”
Dubai is home to one of the most concentrated markets of branded residences where names such as Bulgari, Armani, Bugatti and Roberto Cavalli jostle for prominence alongside established hoteliers such as Ritz-Carlton, Marriott and the Dorchester. There are 49 completed branded developments with another 83 under construction in the emirate — a total of 43,085 homes, according to Morgan’s International Realty.
There is an additional pull that might entice some buyers to Trump Tower Dubai, though: cryptocurrency. If the brochure reads like tech bro talk (“These are the headquarters for the ambitions of visionaries, disruptors, and game-changers. And you’re next”), it’s because the project is being marketed to this audience.
The new tower’s announcement coincided with a visit by Eric Trump, Trump’s third child who is in charge of the Trump Organization, the family’s real estate business, to a cryptocurrency conference in Dubai. Eric, alongside his older brother Donald Jr, has launched several crypto ventures, including a Bitcoin mining operation, American Bitcoin.
“I hope a lot of people buy the best apartments in Dubai in Bitcoin,” Eric Trump told a press conference.
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