Donald Trump makes headlines everywhere he goes, and it was certainly no different in Vancouver on Wednesday, June 19, when he and his offspring—daughter Ivanka, and sons Donald Jr. and Eric—made a media appearance to announce they will be emblazoning their name on a future downtown skyscraper. At 63 storeys, the Trump International Hotel & Tower Vancouver, a Holborn Group development project, will become the second tallest building in the city when complete in late 2016. The spiraling, site-specific structure, which Trump described as “twisted”, both for its shape and its vast expense, was originally designed by late architect Arthur Erickson for the Ritz-Carlton hotel group before that project was cancelled in 2009. Holborn has since adapted the design to suit a 147-room Trump hotel, 218 Trump residences, a champagne bar, a nightclub replete with pool bar (the first of its kind in the city), as well as Ivanka Trump’s own brand of spa, Mar a Lago, which will debut for its first time outside of the Mar a Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
To celebrate the launch, Holborn president and CEO Joo Kim Tiah invited a select group of Vancouver business people to his personal residence in West Vancouver for a private cocktail reception with the Trump family that evening. “This is going to be special,” Donald Trump said, addressing the crowd in true Trump style. “We have a special family, and special companies, and we’re going to make it good, right? We’re going to make it the best.”
The Trump International Hotel & Tower presentation centre opened November 2, 2013.
