US-based The Trump Organization on December 13 said it plans to add three to five new projects across India next year worth roughly Rs 2,500 crore in association with Mumbai-based partner Tribeca Developers.
“Up to six new deals (under the Trump brand]) are in the works. We plan to sign three to five of them next year. One will be launched in the middle of next year. Maybe we will have two launches next year of the three to five we sign off. All Trump projects will be greenfield,” said Kalpesh Mehta, founder of Tribeca Developers, at the 10th anniversary of the company’s association with The Trump Organisation. Donald Trump Jr, who is the executive vice president of The Trump Organisation, flew into Pune to mark the celebrations.
“With the success of our recently delivered projects and the tailwinds in the industry, we are embarking on an aggressive expansion plan of doubling our project portfolio in the next year,” Mehta said.
“The total deal pipeline is around Rs 7000-8000 crore and our target is to close about Rs 5000 crore. We will sign up seven- eight projects worth around Rs 5,000 crore over the next 12 months. Of this Rs 2,500 crore worth of properties will be for the three-five Trump-branded projects for which we are looking at new cities such as Bengaluru and Hyderabad,” said Mehta.
"Tribeca has been instrumental in the expansion of the Trump brand across India over the last ten years. My friendship with Kalpesh goes even further back and I am delighted to be here for this special occasion,” Donald Trump Jr said.
“In the last 10 years, I have seen Tribeca’s development capabilities evolve to a level where it now rivals the best global luxury developers. I am looking forward to our joint expansion plans over the coming years in India."
The Trump brand would be adding two more asset classes in India--Trump villas and Trump offices.
“The Trump portfolio in India has only been Trump residential but now we are very keen on introducing two more asset classes - Trump offices and Trump villas and the entire market is open for us,” Mehta said.
Elaborating on how he introduced the concept of branded residences in India almost a decade ago, Mehta said that “The dream I started with in hindsight feels silly and risky, starting a development company with no development experience, no capital, and no land and here we are today one of the largest branded developers in India, the largest branded properties in the world after the Trump Organisation. We are creating landmarks. It is a very exciting day for us today and what has allowed us to get here today was our asset-light business model, one where we do not do land, we do not approvals, we focus all our energies on developing the best products,” he told reporters.
“We now stand at a point when there are incredible tailwinds behind us. There is good proof of concept of what Tribeca has delivered,” he said, adding “Being asset-light has not been easy.”
“We have also increased prices of our Trump projects by 25 to 30 percent,” he said.
Mehta said that the company has two portfolios under its kitty - the first one is the Trump branded residential portfolio and the second is the non-Trump portfolio which Tribeca is independently developing in partnership with other builders.
While the company plans to add 3-4 new projects under the Trump portfolio, the remaining projects will be under the Tribeca brand in Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi-NCR where it already has projects.
“The result of the last 10 years has been that every single project that we launched Trump or non-Trump has sold 20 to a 50 percent premium compared to anything else in that micro market. We are a stage now where people coming to us having seen that success having seen proof of delivery,” he said.
Trump Jr. said that the business took a hit during the four years that his father was in office and two years of the pandemic.
“We will be taking a voluntary pause from new business activity if he (Donald Trump) wins the 2024 election. Even the last time, we did take a self-imposed break as that was the right thing to do,” he said.
There are already four Trump-branded properties in the country, making India one of the largest market for the brand outside the US.
New York-based The Trump Organization entered the Indian real estate market through a partnership with Mumbai-based Tribeca Developers almost a decade ago. The US firm and Tribeca have tied up with local developers, including the Lodha group, to build luxury projects under the 'Trump' brand. So far, four luxury projects have been announced and the one in Pune has been completed.
There are four Trump projects in India -- Trump Tower Delhi-NCR, Trump Tower Kolkata, Trump Tower Pune, and Trump Tower Mumbai.
The Trump Organization has already completed a luxury project in Pune in partnership with Panchshil Realty. It tied up with the Lodha group in 2014 for a housing project in Mumbai, which is under construction.
In November 2017, Trump Tower was launched in Kolkata, which comprises 140 ultra-luxury apartments and is being developed by Unimark Group, RDB Group, and Tribeca Developers.
The fourth housing project in Haryana’s Gurugram was launched in 2018 and is being developed by realty firm M3M.
Tribeca, which pioneered the concept of branded residential properties in the country ten years ago, has 6.5 million sqft of saleable area across five projects. Besides, it has three upcoming non-Trump projects - with around 2.73 million sqft across three projects in Pune.
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