NEW DELHI: India will have the maximum number of Trump Towers outside of US-president elect’s “The Trump Organisation” home country. From four all-residential high-rise luxury residential Trump Towers in Mumbai, Pune, Gurgaon and Kolkata, the number will swell to 10 in the next six years with many more projects – including office, golf course and villas – to be built in Noida, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurgaon and Pune.
Trump’s luxury real estate partner in India, Tribeca Developers founder Kalpesh Mehta, now sees even more growth after the news of his victory in the US polls came in on Wednesday.
“I did my MBA from Wharton, where the Trump family, including Donald Trump, went to. A professor there connected me to Donald Trump junior. We met at a bar in New York, 13-14 years ago, and on the back of a cocktail pier napkin discussed and made our initial plans which eventually became a reality. His advice when we subsequently tied up, and since then, has been just this: ‘We don’t want to do too many projects, but whatever we do should be the best in class’,” Mehta (46), who comes from a family of architects, told TOI on Wednesday.
In 2014, when the two companies were launching Trump Tower Mumbai, Donald Trump had come to India. “This was shortly after PM Narendra Modi had won the 2014 general election. He generally discussed India during his first trip to the country and the topic here was mainly Modi at that time. Since then he has been fond of our PM. Trump has always believed firmly in India’s potential. He became more bullish after Modi became the PM. And now, India will have the maximum Trump properties outside of the US,” Mehta said. The Trump real estate business is run on the lines of management contract hotels where the Indian partner invests in the hardware (brick and mortar) and the foreign partner, Trump Organisation in this case, brings its branding and software in terms of service level and global reach.
“The four Trump Towers (one each in Mumbai, Pune, Gurgaon and Kolkata) have a combined area of 30 lakh square feet with about 800 residences in the range of Rs 6-25 crore each and a total sale value of Rs 7,500 crore. The six more coming up in as many years will have a combined floor area of 80 lakh square feet and total sale value of Rs 15,000 crore,” Mehta said.
Pune, which already has a Trump Tower, is getting another Trump complex with an office block. Trump golf course and villas will come up in another city.
“A Trump presidency is fundamentally good for the world and for further strengthening India-US relationship. PM Modi and President Trump greatly admire and respect each other and this relationship has potential to be greatly beneficial to world at large,” Mehta added.