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Exclusive l Make sure every project is a trophy: Donald Trump’s advice to Indian real estate partner
Kalpesh Mehta of Tribeca Developers, licensed partner of the Trump Organization in India, says will announce six new Trump Tower projects soon
Reacting to Donald Trump’s election as the president of the United States, Kalpesh Mehta, founder of Tribeca Developers, the licensed partner of the Trump Organisation in India, said on November 6 that the win was ‘historic’ and reminisced on the advice he received from Trump himself as he was setting up the company: “Do it like I did. Don’t do too many projects but whatever you do make sure it is a trophy.”
“This is a historic win..We believe that a Trump presidency is fundamentally good for the world and for further strengthening the India – US relationship. PM Modi and President Trump greatly admire and respect each other and this relationship has the potential to be greatly beneficial to the world at large,” said Mehta.
Mehta, who studied at Wharton, and whose relationship with Donald Trump (Jr) goes back to over 15 years (where he was pursuing his MBA and Donald Trump (Jr) was an undergrad), said that he had met Donald Trump several times and the advice he received from him when he was contemplating setting up Tribeca was “Do it like I did. Don’t do too many projects but whatever you do make sure it is a trophy.”
Tribeca incidentally is the name of a place in New York city where Mehta lived. “It is my favourite neighbourhood in the city and I always wanted to bring New York luxury to India and that’s where the name came from.”
He mentioned that his real estate management professor at Wharton made the ‘marriage’ between the Trump brand and Tribeca happen. “We were in the same school -Wharton- he was there for his undergrad and I was there for my MBA and we had a professor who was a mentor to me and a mentor to the Trump kids. He made the marriage happen. We signed the first deal on the back of a cocktail napkin in New York (Don and me) almost 13-14 years back.”
On plans to bring Donald Trump (Jr) to India, Mehta said that “the plan is to bring both Donald Trump (Jr) and Eric Trump to India next year…definitely in the first half.”
Six new projects expected to come up in Pune, Gurugram, Noida, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru
Trump Towers is set to benefit further from Donald Trump’s sweeping win in the US elections. The Indian partner Tribeca has finalised six new deals totalling 8 mn sq ft with the US brand. These are expected to have a sale potential of over ₹15000 crore.
India has the highest number of Trump branded projects in the world, after the US, with four Trump branded projects, totaling 3 m sq ft. And Tribeca, Trump’s India partner has indicated that they have finalized six new projects across India, totaling 8 m sq ft and with a sale potential of over ₹15,000 crore.
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“Trump is the only super luxury real estate brand in the world, and Tribeca has worked hard to ensure that our Trump projects in India become trophy properties. The new projects have been carefully selected over time, and we intend to push the boundaries of luxury even further with them, further solidifying Tribeca’s position as India’s leading trophy property developer,” he said.
The new projects will be located in Pune, Gurugram, Noida, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. “Two deals will be with repeat partners,” he said, adding at least four deals will be announced by early December.
“These will be a mix of full stack and development management models. Each of these projects will have local partners - developers as well as landowners,” he told HT.com.
“In cities where Trump Towers already exist, the second version of these properties may be called Trump World Towers,” he said.
Of the six new properties, one is a large office development that is expected to come up in Pune. “This will be the first Trump office project in India. This is likely to be announced in December and launched in Q1-Q2 next year,” he said.
“Four projects are expected to be announced in December and these will be launched in late Q1 or early Q2 calendar year next year - March and May 2025,” he said.
One of the six projects is expected to be a golf and villas project, he added.
Tribeca has so far brought four Trump properties to India. It had earlier licensed the brand to Lodha for the Trump Tower in Mumbai and Panchshil Realty in Pune. It is executing the Gurugram project with the M3M group and the Kolkata project with the Unimark group. Buyers of these luxury housing units include HNIs and even Bollywood stars. As many as 20% are NRIs.
