Trump Tower buyers buoyed by triumph: Under-construction estate link to US polls
Telegraph | 7 November 2024
As Donald Trump roared back to power trouncing Kamala Harris, a clutch of home-buyers in an under-construction luxury realty estate in Calcutta named after the former and would-be US President was keeping a close tab on the race for the White House.
“I have been glued to my mobile since morning. It is great to see him (Trump) back in the White House,” said Sumit Bhalotia.
Bhalotia is among the hundred-odd buyers of apartments in Trump Tower, which is coming up off EM Bypass behind Science City. Even though the project is behind schedule for completion, the aspiring residents, though a trifle miffed, are not complaining, at least not after Trump’s return to glory.
“I think the project will get more appreciation (in prices), even though it already has over the years. I am getting offers to sell but I intend to keep it and live there,” said Sukant Dutt, an early-stage buyer of a Trump Tower apartment.
The project, conceived when Trump was running for the presidency for the first time in 2016 and launched a year later, will be ground-plus-38 storeys and have 138 apartments.
The 3,4 and 5 BHK apartments are now listed on real estate marketing in a price bracket of ₹4.5 crore to ₹7 crore, translating to the unit price of ₹16,000 to ₹20,000 per square foot.
Apartment buyers said the consortium of developers, which includes Calcutta-based Unimark Group and RDB and Tribeca Developers, founded by Kapesh Mehta, has assured them that the flats would be handed over in six to seven months.
“It is running behind schedule, in part due to disruption during the Covid pandemic. However, I am not going to the RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Authority) to complain. I have been assured that it would be delivered soon,” said a buyer who did not wish to be quoted.
The project had grabbed eyeballs when announced as it coincided with the first Trump presidency. The lure of brand Trump, emblazoned on the signature glass façade, was clearly working among the wannabee buyers, some of whom had even the chance to meet Donald Trump Jr, the elder son of President Trump and executive vice-president of The Trump Organisation, which licences the brand for an array of real estate developments, including hotels, resorts and golf courses across north America and the rest of the world, in person in Calcutta and in New York.
Along with Mumbai, Pune and Gurgaon, Calcutta was one of the four projects signed by the Trump Organisation before Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States. The business activities of the company were severely restricted in the four years when he was in office.
However, Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in 2020 may have had an impact, at least on a section of people.
“When he lost, a few came up and told me about it (Trump Tower). But there is no correlation as such,” Dutt recalled, even as he now hopes that people would look at the project positively.
Clearly, the buyers of Trump Tower are ready to relish a second bite at the cherry.