Top Trump

Trump Junior.

After being whisked off from the Cityscape opening press conference by organisers last week, Donald Trump Junior was hurried into a private conference room for an exclusive chat with five senior journalists. Trump tells Construction Week editor Conrad Egbert his thoughts on the region.

Trump Junior, or ‘Baby Trump’ as he is affectionately known as in some circles, is a sharp man. He’s as skillful a businessman as he is with answering questions in a very politically-correct and diplomatic fashion – but then, after all, he is an executive vice president of the US-based multi-billion dollar Trump Organisation.

But what brought the real estate heir to not-so-sunny Dubai? Was he meant to be the top trump at Cityscape and expected to inject confidence into the region’s property market? Or was he simply here because he believes in the strength and resilience of Dubai, which governments have missed no opportunity to shout about?

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By the looks of it – a bit of both. “The last time I came to Dubai was about 15 months ago, just before the whole crash happened,” said Trump looking a little nervous in the hot seat.

“And to be honest, the foreign media has given us a totally wrong impression of the region. We thought we were entering a dust bowl where nothing is happening. But I’m glad to say it’s certainly not the case.”

But while optimism was the general feeling from Mr Trump, he did say that a slowdown was obvious.

“Its not a total stand still,” he clarified. “One can definitely see the difference in the pace of construction now than before, but it’s not a write-off, like the foreign press has being saying.”

The Trump International Hotel and Tower, the organisation’s first multi-billion dollar project in the region, was put on hold indefinitely in May. And with the restart of construction work no where in sight, Trump’s optimism, especially considering he hasn’t bought any property in Dubai, had to be taken with a pinch of salt.

“I would love to go forward with the project in the next two years but I don’t know if that is going to happen,” he said when asked to shed some light on the inner workings of the Trump deal with Nakheel.

“I’d say Dubai stopped building in time. It was a good business decision. They didn’t go on pumping good money in after bad money in order to carry on with a project. Some developers are still in denial about the downturn. They’re throwing in good money after bad. If it doesn’t make sense, cancel it. There is a lot of excess supply in the market for us to be able to pick up that sort of project.

“Also I want to get the project done, but in a responsible fashion, unlike a lot of development that has been done here.”

He added that the Trump hotel and tower had to be built to standards that are better than what is currently prevalent, confirming again, the many quality problems that the region’s construction market has faced in the past.

He said that his hands were tied at the moment with regards to work on the tower and that Nakheel was responsible for its restart.

“There is a time frame that we’re looking at but that is Nakheel’s decision. We are not an equity investor, but we have an active marketing role,” he said.