Trump’s Doomed Black Sea Tower Might Happen After All
- ‘The Monte Carlo of the Caucasus’ was how Trump described city
- Deal was with rival of government, which may now change tunes
Trump speaks to then Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in Batumi, Georgia, on April 22, 2012.
Photographer: Seyran Baroyan/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Donald Trump flew to the Black Sea resort town of Batumi in 2012 and, standing alongside then Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, announced a deal licensing his name to a $250-million 47-story residential Trump Tower to be built by a local developer called Silk Road Group.
Six months later, Saakashvili’s party lost parliamentary elections and later his term ended. He left Georgia, afraid his newly empowered opponents might jail him. Batumi’s Trump Tower seemed doomed -- until now.