Another Trump Tower Bites the Dust: Australian Gold Coast Project Collapses

If you are going to build in the name of Donald Trump, you build big. Or at least, you try. A planned Trump Tower on Australia's Gold Coast was supposed to become the country's tallest building – 340 metres high, with 285 hotel rooms, 272 luxury apartments, restaurants, boutiques spread over 91 storeys, and an exclusive beach club. It was meant to be Australia's superlative skyscraper, rising on what locals call "Australia's Miami."

Now it is nothing. The project is dead.

The parties involved are publicly arguing over why. David Young, chief of the Altus Property Group, told Australian broadcaster ABC: "Let's just say that with the Iran war and everything else, the Trump brand in Australia became increasingly toxic. Some time ago, we knew it was time to part ways."

The Trump Organization rejects that version entirely. Kimberly Benza, director of executive operations, told the BBC that after months of negotiations and empty promises, the Altus Property Group was unable to meet the most basic financial obligation at the time of contract signing. She added that Young's attempt to blame certain world events for the termination is merely a diversion from his own failures.

On Valentine's Day, Young and Eric Trump, the US president's son, had a glitzy appearance at Mar-a-Lago to sign a brand licensing and hotel management agreement. Estimated construction costs were around 1.5 billion Australian dollars – roughly 850 million Swiss francs. Eric Trump wrote on X that he was so proud to announce what would soon be the tallest building in Australia. Less than three months later, the project is dead.

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate, who had met Donald and Eric Trump at Mar-a-Lago shortly before the announcement, took a more pragmatic view. He told ABC that it all comes down to money. The Trump Organization demands significantly more on the financing side and on the profit share, while the developer says: "I'm putting all my money in, and you're taking a substantial share of the profit."

The Trump brand, once a seemingly golden ticket for luxury real estate, has become something closer to a liability. The Trump Organization's business model follows the asset-light principle: no equity of its own, just the licensed name and management know-how. The financial risk is borne entirely by the local partner and its investors. But the name Trump is no longer a guaranteed premium product. In New York, luxury properties have actively removed Trump branding to avoid scaring off buyers. Analysts even speak of a "Trump discount."

Public opinion in Australia reflected that shift. A petition against the Gold Coast project gathered more than 140,000 signatures. A counter-petition in favour? Just 3,500.

The Trump Organization said it looks forward to exploring other potential projects and bringing a Trump property to Australia soon. How realistic that is remains an open question. The brand has lost its shine on the Gold Coast before a single stone was laid. And this is not the first time.

In late 2025, a Trump Tower project in Belgrade, Serbia, was stopped. That plan envisioned a luxury hotel, shopping centre, and 1,500 apartments. Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner wanted to demolish the so-called "General Staff" building – the 1990s headquarters of the Yugoslav army that NATO bombed in 1999. The ruins have been a protected monument since 2005. Despite that, Kushner and the Serbian government agreed on the project in early 2024. After a year and a half of disputes over corruption allegations, Kushner's firm pulled out, citing "respect for the people of Serbia and the city of Belgrade."

Germany also has a history of failed Trump Towers. In November 2000, Frankfurt's then-mayor Petra Roth met Donald Trump in New York and promised him Europe's tallest office tower, Trump Tower Europe, to be built on the banks of the Main River and completed by 2006 or 2007. Trump even came to Frankfurt to view a potential construction site. But he left the city annoyed, noting that Stuttgart was far more open to his plans. In Stuttgart, a project for the tallest building in southern Germany was proposed in 2004. Lack of tenant interest and urban planning concerns eventually killed it.

The Trump brand earned its glitter primarily with the first Trump Tower, completed by Donald Trump on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 1983. That 68-storey, 202-metre monument features a facade of the most expensive glass available: solar bronze. Pink gleaming Breccia Pernice marble in the atrium welcomed famous residents including Michael Jackson, Steven Spielberg, and Sophia Loren. Trump's own three-storey penthouse, which served as his primary residence until his move to Mar-a-Lago, was decorated with gold and pomp. He naturally proclaimed it the most beautiful apartment in New York, where he hosted presidents, kings, and representatives of the financial elite.

Trump built, bought, and sold many other towers. In 2001, he opened Trump World Tower – until 2011, the tallest residential building in America. The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is one of that city's most legendary buildings. In 2007, while still under construction, its top floors were used to film the final confrontation between Batman and the Joker in "The Dark Knight." That Trump project was originally intended to become the tallest building in the world. After the September 11 attacks, however, the architects reduced the planned height. It opened in 2009 as the second-tallest building in the United States.

But since the namesake spends less time on the real estate market and more time shaping world politics, the superlatives seem to have deserted Trump's construction projects. The Gold Coast was supposed to be a comeback. Instead, it is just the latest entry on a growing list of dreams that got built only on paper.