Like many business executives, David Young, an Australian property developer, touted his latest venture on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n
Mr. Young, who is the chief executive of Altus Property Group, wrote in February that he would oversee the construction of Australia\u2019s tallest building on the Gold Coast, a city in Queensland known for Instagram influencers and sunburned backpackers.<\/p>\n
But it was the other name on the agreement that drew global attention: the Trump Organization.<\/p>\n
The Trump International Hotel & Tower would be the first Trump-branded project in Australia, the latest in a string of international real estate ventures linked to the business empire founded by President Trump.<\/p>\n
The Trump family business \u2014 now run day-to-day by the president\u2019s sons Eric and Donald Jr. \u2014 has focused on international branding deals<\/a> in recent years. In most of these agreements, the Trump family lends its name to a project and is paid a multimillion-dollar fee, along with a cut of the money the developers make on associated sales.<\/p>\n The Gold Coast project, worth a proposed 1.5 billion Australian dollars (about $1.09 billion), was set to be a 91-story property in Surfers Paradise, a beachside district of the Gold Coast. It was supposed to feature a luxury hotel, residential apartments, a beach club, and retail and commercial spaces. Work was set to begin in August.<\/p>\n But less than three months after the deal was announced, it has fallen apart.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we were very excited about the opportunity to bring a world-class development to the Gold Coast, the project was dependent on our licensing partner meeting certain obligations,\u201d a Trump Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, those obligations\u201d \u2014which referred to financial commitments \u2014 \u201cwere not fulfilled,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n The original news release announcing the deal has been removed from the Trump Organization website<\/a>.<\/p>\n The project was unveiled to much fanfare in February, with Mr. Young promising it would give the area a \u201cmuch-needed face-lift.\u201d He said he had first wanted to build a luxury property in Queensland in 2007, and, being a \u201cconfident and direct person,\u201d cold-called Ivanka Trump, Mr. Trump\u2019s daughter.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven that they are a family business, I sensed that they would assess me very quickly and either dismiss me or start talking,\u201d he wrote in the LinkedIn post from February, which has since been deleted.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was years before Donald Trump became President. My project has nothing to do with politics,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Mr. Young included a photo of him shaking hands with Eric Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Valentine\u2019s Day after signing the deal this year.<\/p>\n Not everyone was enthusiastic about the idea of a Trump tower on the Gold Coast. Thousands rushed to sign online petitions seeking to halt the project over concerns about the \u201cTrump brand and what it represents,\u201d in the words of one petition. The president\u2019s popularity in Australia has plunged to its lowest level of his second term because of the war in Iran, a poll from the Sydney Morning Herald found last month.<\/a><\/p>\n Mr. Young, who had been fairly unknown before the Trump deal, said on LinkedIn that he had more than 30 years in the industry, mostly developing commercial properties and residential communities.<\/p>\n