Trump backs high rise apartment project in Georgia
08-05-2012
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‘I’ll be putting something in, but that has not been determined yet. For the job itself, it will be more than $100 million,’ he said during a visit to the capital city Tbilisi.
Trump, who travelled to Georgia after a visit to Istanbul, unveiled the 47 story Trump Tower Batumi project with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and partner Silk Road Group, one of the country’s biggest private investment companies.
‘Batumi is becoming quite a place, it’s the best location, the Monte Carlo of the region,’ Trump said. Silk Road will be responsible for fundraising, he added.
‘I know for sure that Trump’s participation will be the key for success of this project. It will cause an interest among regional investors as well as potential buyers of apartments in Trump Tower,’ said Georgy Ramishvili, chairman of the Silk Road Group.
The real estate developer also revealed that he was approached by a Russian real estate developer a few months ago about ‘something very substantial in Moscow’.
Georgia was ranked as the world’s third fastest growing tourist destination last year, with a 39% increase in international arrivals, according to a report by the World Tourism Barometer.
The country’s $11.6 billion economy grew about 7% in 2011, the statistics office said, citing preliminary data. Gross domestic product rose 8.8% from a year earlier in the fourth quarter.
Saakashvili said during the April 22 presentation in Batumi that the Georgian conglomerate expects to have the necessary funding by the end of this year, with construction expected to start in early 2013.
Georgia's economy minister Vera Kobalia said that the project will encourage more foreign investment as Caucasus mountain nation had become a prime destination for foreign money.
‘I think you have a lot of investment opportunities in Georgia. It’s amazing what’s going on. It’s one of the really amazing places in the world right now,’ Trump told Reuters.
Georgia’s economy was crippled by a five day war with Russia in August 2008 and the global crisis that followed, which crimped foreign investment, forcing the former Soviet republic to rely on international aid.
Its recovery started in 2010, however, when foreign direct investment rose to $814.5 million from $658.4 million in 2009. In 2011, FDI rose 20% year on year to $981 million.
‘As Georgia becomes a player in the global economy, what’s extremely important for Georgia is to have a brand like Trump coming to Georgia and showing the world that like Western development Georgia is coming to the market as well,’ Michael Cohen, the Trump Organisation’s executive vice president, told Reuters.
