Real estate mogul Donald Trump now eyeing former Soviet republic of Georgia for investment potential

He has sent Michael Cohen, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, to the country to sound out possibilities after being impressed by the country’s President Mikheil Saakashvili on a recent trip to New York.
 
The Republic of Georgia is not the most obvious location for a lavish Trump Tower development but Cohen believes there are two possible locations one of which could be suitable for one of the group’s flagship Trump Tower luxury hotels.
 
Cohen visited 13 potential development sites and said he was impressed by the Black Sea coastal town of Batumi. It is largely an unknown destination outside central Europe but is a popular destination for tourists from Central Asia due to a temperate climate and proximity to the Turkish border.
 
‘I’m here to walk the land and smell the dirt. My trip comes after Mr. Trump was impressed by the conversation they had about the future of Georgia. We’re looking for profit from Georgia,’ he said during a three day fact finding trip to the country’s capital Tbilisi.
 
He has also visited the Adjara region on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. He refused to reveal what kind of investments Trump might be interested and said it would depend if there is something he likes.
 
President Saakashvili was in the US in April and met with officials including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Georgian leader has stepped up efforts to revive foreign direct investment, which fell 51% in 2009 from a year earlier to $759 million as the global economic slump curtailed appetite for emerging markets.
 
The Georgian government has also been looking to the Middle East in particular for investment money. Deals worth around $1 billion over the next three years have already been agreed with the United Arab Emirates.
 
Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment, part of the UAE’s sovereign wealth fund, has also conducted a fact finding trip to Georgia but the company hasn’t announced its investment plans.
 
‘Maybe what’s stopping them is that they don’t have a brand. With a name like Trump, with the money and the domestic brand group, it sounds like a winning proposition to me,’ said Cohen.
 
Cohen said that the information he has gathered will now be evaluated to see if there is enough wealth creation potential. If so the company’s internal development team will visit the country.
 
Part of the evaluation process will involve looking at whether or not Georgia has enough rich people to invest in projects and the potential to attract wealthy visitors, most notably from Russia, India and China.