Trump ditches US$250m tower plan in Black Sea town

Tbilisi

DONALD Trump's company pulled out of a proposed US$250-million tower project in the Georgian Black Sea resort town of Batumi, the latest effort by the US president-elect to defuse charges that his global businesses will cause conflicts of interest once he enters the White House.

The Trump Organization and its local partner in Georgia, the Silk Road Group, said in a joint e-mailed statement that they have decided "to formally end the development of Trump Tower, Batumi". The project, a 47-storey residential condominium, was announced in 2012 by Mr Trump and then-Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili. Silk Road said it will go ahead on its own with a luxury tower in the town, once dubbed the Monte Carlo of the Caucasus by Mr Trump.