Eric Trump, Alex Sapir Pitch Trump Tower Tbilisi

When Donald Trump led the Trump Organization, he licensed his name to developer Tamir Sapir for the 46-story Trump Soho hotel-condo.

That was two decades ago. Sapir died in 2014. Trump’s serving his second term as president after putting his real estate assets in a trust during his first stint in office.

Now, the firm, led by the president’s sons Eric and Donald Jr., is teaming up with Sapir’s son Alex to construct a Trump Tower in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, where Tamir Sapir was born. The plan offers a window on how the Trump scions lean on old connections to license their brand to foreign developers.

The Trump Org, Sapir Organization and their Georgian partners Archi Group and INVIA launched a grandiose marketing campaign for a planned 62-story condo tower in Tbilisi, Georgia, which would be the tallest in the country.

Trump’s condo tower, overlooking Tbilisi’s new Central Park, is designed by Gensler and will be the first phase of a $2 billion, six-tower master-planned development called Downtown Tbilisi. The area is known for its cobblestone streets and mix of 19th century and Soviet-style buildings.

“It’s going to be the most architecturally significant building built in Europe in some time,” said Eric Trump in an interview with The Real Deal.

The developers held a launch party on Tuesday featuring dancers, drone fireworks, and an animated portrayal of the new Trump Tower to the song “YMCA.” Eric Trump appeared via video from Florida to speak to a crowd of hundreds of onlookers in business attire.

The dancers of the Archi Group and INVIA marketing campaign (Facebook)

Trump told TRD the Trump Org is not an equity partner in the project. Trump Org will work on the design, marketing and management of the property, but relies on its local partners, Archi and INVIA, he said.

“As an American company going into Tbilisi, it’d be very hard for us to go find the Trump Tower of Tbilisi,” said Trump. “We wouldn’t have that land. You really need the people.”

Alex Sapir, CEO of the Sapir Org, introduced Eric Trump to the project’s Georgian development partners.

“Alex has been a longtime friend of the family,” said Trump. “He knows what he’s doing, and he’s been a great person in our life for many, many years, a person that we trust.”

Sapir told TRD he was introduced last year to Ilia Tsulaia, a founder of Archi and one of the largest developers in Georgia, by his business partners in the European country.

He traveled to the country in November 2025 for the first time since he was 5 years old.

“The trip really hit me a lot,” Sapir said.

Sapir said he told Tsulaia he wanted to do something for the country. Tsulaia, it turned out, had plans to construct the tallest building in the center of the city. Sapir told him he had the perfect brand for a new development: Trump.

From Georgia with love

A rendering of Trump Tower Tbilisi (Dezeen)

The Georgian developers agreed to acquire the land for the project in 2023 from a foundation controlled by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili’s family, according to the Wall Street Journal. The developers would pay the foundation $85 million at a later date, according to the report. The payments were paid by July, a spokesperson for the project told TRD.

Ivanishvili was the country’s prime minister in 2012 and 2013 and a founder of the Russia-friendly Georgian Dream party. Ivanishvili was sanctioned by the U.S. in December 2024 for undermining the democracy of Georgia.

The Tbilisi project follows a pattern of similar overseas deals for the Trump Org, including in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar. Trump Org licenses its brand in exchange for a fee and, usually, a portion of revenue. They are not an equity partner, Trump said.

Trump Org’s deals have come under scrutiny from critics who claim they are a way for foreign interests to buy access or goodwill with the Trump administration. President Trump made more than $2 billion in revenue in 2025 through his various businesses, compared to $622 million the year prior, financial disclosures show.

The White House did not return a request for comment.

“[Trump Tower Tbilisi] has nothing to do with the influence of a government or the influence of my father,” Eric Trump told TRD. “My father certainly isn’t influenced by anyone. I think he’s proven that pretty dramatically over many, many, many years.”

Eric Trump speaks at the the Archi Group and INVIA marketing campaign (Facebook)

Sapir said the Trump Tower in Tbilisi is strictly a real estate deal.

“At the end of the day, the guy [Ivanishvili] is one of the richest guys in the world, so he owns a lot of property,” Sapir said. “Some people have an issue buying from the Vatican. The Vatican is one of the largest landowners in the world.”

Sapir inherited a property empire from his father Tamir, who immigrated to the U.S. and worked as a cab driver prior to buying real estate in Manhattan, such as 11 Madison Avenue, 100 Church Street and 50 Murray Street. The younger Sapir charted his own path, developing the boutique condo Arte in Surfside, Florida, which famously rented out the penthouse to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in 2021.

Sapir’s portfolio has come under stress in the past few years amid higher interest rates. He sold his NoMo Soho hotel and an office property at 260 Madison Avenue in New York City. Sapir also listed a 1.5-acre assemblage in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood for sale. This week, TRD reported that Sapir and his estranged wife are under contract to sell their Miami Beach waterfront estate.

Sapir declined to comment when asked about his other properties and would only speak about the Trump Tower.

Georgia is one of Europe’s fastest-growing economies. The country had a GDP growth rate of about 9.4 percent in 2024, compared to the 1.1 percent average for the EU. Sapir said he expects condo buyers of the Tbilisi tower to come from the Middle East, Europe and the U.S. and to be seeking to take advantage of the country’s growth at attractive pricing.

Studios at the Trump project will start at $290,000, with pricing at about $650 to $1,000 per square foot, according to a release announcing the project. The median condo price in NYC was $1,575 per square foot, according to TRD’s data analysis.

Sapir said he hopes the project will put Georgia on the map for international investors. He noted that he and the Trumps go back years to their Trump Soho days, a property the Trump Org exited in 2017 and which is now called The Dominick.

“They know I would only put them in a really good situation,” said Sapir.