Ivanka's Imprint
Matthew Kirdahy, 05.27.08 Forbes.com
Trump and The Great Pyramids could be neighbors soon.
Ivanka Trump, in her role as vice president of real estate development and acquisitions, scouted Egypt for Trump Organization's Hotel Collection in May. She returned with some ideas about expansion in the North African country. She was reticent to share any though, at least with the press.
"I think there's incredible potential for growth in that part of the world," Trump said from her office in New York City's Trump Tower.
Trump, 26, along with her brothers Donald Jr., 30, and Eric, 24, is working to open a dozen new Hotel Collection locations in the next two years worldwide. The brand, backed by real estate mogul and billionaire Donald Trump, most recently opened towers in Chicago and Las Vegas. The entire portfolio caters to 1%-5% of the traveling public.
Trump towers in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Waikiki, Hawaii, are set to open in 2009. Trump SoHo in New York City is the next tower scheduled to open in spring 2009. A fatal construction accident at the site temporarily delayed work, but construction resumed mid-May.
As a business leader, Ivanka Trump is faced with the challenges of dealing with these obstacles in development. By now, her father has seen it all, and she admits that despite her connections and deep real estate roots, she has much to learn.
Trump will expand its global footprint to seven more developments worldwide in 2010--Panama City, Panama; Baja, Mexico; Toronto, Canada; Dubai, U.A.E.; New Orleans, La.; and Aberdeen, Scotland.
Ivanka Trump already is scoping areas in the Middle East for future development.
"We have the brand equity of a company that's penetrated every market," she said. "That's the beauty of it."
Trump met with Forbes.com and discussed how even the smallest details define a hotel experience and whether or not she'll be chief executive one day.
Forbes.com: How is the Chicago International Hotel & Tower going?
Ivanka Trump: Chicago has been incredible. It was one of the first new construction hotels to come online. It's 92 stories, which makes the top stories that are residential the highest habitable floors in North America--North and South America actually.
It also being the first hotel product to come online in our price line of our 13 fully financed under-construction hotels really put us to task on all the little things. You don't know how many people ask me if I've gone into uniform design, but it's just another level of detail. I hand-designed all the uniforms.
Was that something you were passionate about doing or just part of the job?
It's just physical presentation of your staff to the outside world. The first person you're greeted by is the doorman, then the bellhop, the housekeepers and the concierge. I think it's a very important part of the experience. It's part of the brand, and it has zero to do with any interest in going into fashion design.
It's that sort of level of detail our buyers expect, and our hotel guests will expect it on that same level. Every detail, whether it's the items that go on the spa menu or choosing the artwork for the hallways. There really aren't too many details that are too small. It's actually been like a fun, really creative process, and my brothers and I have a lot of fun with it.
Some of our best ideas are really small ones. The experiences we have in other hotels we stay in. I'm bombarding Jim Petrus [chief operating officer] with e-mails, and other ... things we have to do at a specific property.
About staying in other hotels, is it part of a scouting process to see what the competition is doing?
There's a bar that's constantly raised. In the last decade, it's really been elevated. You can say the physical structure in Chicago is the best building that the Trump organization has ever built in terms of the bones of the building, in terms of the amenities. I just really loved working on it.
I think that after a certain point, the details are what elevate the experience.
There are certain hotels I see around the world where it's the same doorman every time you visit. The same driver picks you up at the airport. They greet you, and they know your name. They put a bookmark in your book when you leave it on your bed and you leave your room. It's these little touches that I always remember and that define the experience. Even in some cases they're an inferior standard of building.
We've got the how-to-build side down, and extending into the hospitality has been a lot of fun because it just continues to push us. We're constantly learning from everything we see around us, and we're constantly improving what we have for our guests.
You just returned from a long business trip, correct?
I was in Israel, Dubai, Abu Dhabi. I was in Amman, Jordan, in one week.
Of all the areas you've visited, where are you looking to expand the brand next?
We have the brand equity of a company that's penetrated every market. That's the beauty of it. You look at the other large hotel operators; they are in most of the markets they want to be in. Now they're looking for ways to evolve, or they're trying to create destination spots. For us, the world is really open so we can choose to strategically expand based on the feedback we're getting from our guests. Based on some of the obvious markets that provide synergies for our existing hotels and based on a general business strategy.
Right now, we have a hotel in Dubai [pointing to an artist's rendering tacked on the wall next to her desk]. It's gorgeous. One of the towers is a hotel, the other is condominiums.
Initially it was gold, and it looked like a tulip. We literally peeled away the shell of the tulip. It evolved. Our marketing material shows the organic nature of the evolution of the design. It was a very fun process, but to me it's an architecturally breathtaking building. It's got a simplicity and an elegance to it, and it's really cutting edge as well.
Incidentally, for the real estate component of that project, we're only in presales. You won't see an advertisement for that anywhere. In June, we will commence official sales. We're literally going to our buyers who have been loyal to the Trump brand over the years, and many of them are multiple buyers across our whole platform.
The price-per-square-foot we're achieving in our presales, it's higher than anything that's sold in the region that I've ever seen. That's comparing with the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world, which is 120 floors, under construction and has been selling for four years.
That has been, from a sales perspective, one of the greatest successes.
How about sales? Are the properties selling? Granted, the brand caters to the richest class, but has the economic downturn, at least in the U.S., affected your business?
One could argue that everything has been affected, but where there's adverse condition there also lies opportunity. I think that as a brand we have the ability to hedge against the domestic downturn by moving into markets moving into the upswing.
I was in Egypt as well. I think there's incredible potential for growth in Egypt. I have some exciting ideas for that region of the world.
Care to share what those are?
No, not yet.
We have the flexibility to be agile in the locations we choose to go to because the recognition is continuous. And in a lot of cases we do better in those markets because we never previously entered them. There's been no previous ability to buy into our product or stay at one of our hotels, and it creates an enormous level of excitement when my father comes to town for the first time or whatever it may be.
My dad was in a very different position in the early 90s--we had great timing. In softening markets, our product sold out, in Las Vegas, the hotel-condo. We opened about 60 days ago. We're 100% sold out at that building. It's a great experience, and we have no leverage in a time when there is no cash. So we have no leverage, a lot of cash on the books. Domestically, we're looking at buying opportunities. Internationally, we're looking at hotels, branding, etc. opportunities. In some ways we can adjust our strategy.
Two years ago, we weren't looking at buying opportunities because we could get a good deal. Money was cheap and people were paying an enormous premium. Now money is not cheap.
What's the attraction to these emerging markets for hotels? What parts of the world are drawing in the Trump brand?
There are some that are obvious--London, Paris, major cities are important to have in your portfolio. We have Chicago, Las Vegas. We have others that are emerging like Panama. We have a massive project there, but when I first went there--probably my first week at the Trump Organization--the fundamentals were just there. The Panama expansion, the billions of dollars, millions of people coming into work, the tax incentives, the Johns Hopkins and medical facilities that were being created in the region. The lack of adverse weather conditions and the quality of life that people could buy into.
That seemed like an obvious market, and we've had great success with that particular project. There's a balance of being a pioneer and also having to anchor that with projects that are equally successful, but in more mature markets.
We have a great building under construction in SoHo, which will be open this time next year.
Construction has resumed on that?
Yes, we're up and going and will enclose the building shortly. We're two floors away from topping it off.
Is it selling?
Our price per square foot that we've been achieving on that property, we've not released a unit for less than $3,500 a foot, which is really amazing.
We have Trump International uptown, which caters to a certain market. I have friends from Los Angeles who come into town, and it really doesn't matter, they'll take the compromise of quality just to be downtown. There are certain people you can't convince. They say Upper East or West Side, you know. They want to be downtown, and they'll stay downtown. And as a result, they get inferior room size, inferior amenities.
It's a posh hotel, but it's definitely not a five-star standard by any stretch. It's aesthetically geared toward the younger generation without being chintzy. I didn't want to do anything trendy. It has a very contemporary feel that's rooted in luxury, but that doesn't compromise the quality that is expected in sort of a traditional uptown property.
To have 12,000 square feet of spa and fitness facility and the amenity fee in a building in New York is almost unheard of. We're going to have an incredible spa, restaurants, libraries; it's really pretty awesome.
In reference to the SoHo development, a property that has had its share of bad news during construction, as a business leader, how do you face these challenges and handle the issues that arise with any property around the world?
Challenges are what you learn from ultimately. I mean I'm 26 years old. There's a whole lot I haven't experienced. There's a whole lot I haven't learned, and in some ways the market's been so good for so long, like it's easy. It's easy to fall into a pattern of stability that you want a little shakeup. You want to live through some tougher times too.
I think it's the challenges that are ultimately what defines you. I remember more. I take more of the things that I didn't do well and learn from, than perhaps the things that came naturally.
Do you ever see yourself being CEO?
Oh sure. 100%. I see myself never leaving this organization. I see myself continuing to grow it. I see myself continue to work with my brothers. I wouldn't want to exceed them, and I wouldn't want to fall behind them. I'd love us to work as a collective. Together we can do more.
I'm very fortunate about the fact that I don't have to worry that one of us is incompetent or one of us is lazier than the other. That would drive me crazy. That would be a problem because I'd be like, you know what, you don't deserve it. I would articulate that. I could not tell you which of us is more hardworking, and we think the same way. We can do more deals because there are three of us. And obviously, my father loves us being able to do deals with him as well.
In terms of spearheading my own initiative, I have my own jewelry company which I am the president of and make all the decisions on. I have a great partner who is a pure diamond guy who has been terrific. And I'm on the board of directors
Matthew Kirdahy, 05.27.08 Forbes.com
Trump and The Great Pyramids could be neighbors soon.
Ivanka Trump, in her role as vice president of real estate development and acquisitions, scouted Egypt for Trump Organization's Hotel Collection in May. She returned with some ideas about expansion in the North African country. She was reticent to share any though, at least with the press.
"I think there's incredible potential for growth in that part of the world," Trump said from her office in New York City's Trump Tower.
Trump, 26, along with her brothers Donald Jr., 30, and Eric, 24, is working to open a dozen new Hotel Collection locations in the next two years worldwide. The brand, backed by real estate mogul and billionaire Donald Trump, most recently opened towers in Chicago and Las Vegas. The entire portfolio caters to 1%-5% of the traveling public.
Trump towers in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Waikiki, Hawaii, are set to open in 2009. Trump SoHo in New York City is the next tower scheduled to open in spring 2009. A fatal construction accident at the site temporarily delayed work, but construction resumed mid-May.
As a business leader, Ivanka Trump is faced with the challenges of dealing with these obstacles in development. By now, her father has seen it all, and she admits that despite her connections and deep real estate roots, she has much to learn.
Trump will expand its global footprint to seven more developments worldwide in 2010--Panama City, Panama; Baja, Mexico; Toronto, Canada; Dubai, U.A.E.; New Orleans, La.; and Aberdeen, Scotland.
Ivanka Trump already is scoping areas in the Middle East for future development.
"We have the brand equity of a company that's penetrated every market," she said. "That's the beauty of it."
Trump met with Forbes.com and discussed how even the smallest details define a hotel experience and whether or not she'll be chief executive one day.
Forbes.com: How is the Chicago International Hotel & Tower going?
Ivanka Trump: Chicago has been incredible. It was one of the first new construction hotels to come online. It's 92 stories, which makes the top stories that are residential the highest habitable floors in North America--North and South America actually.
It also being the first hotel product to come online in our price line of our 13 fully financed under-construction hotels really put us to task on all the little things. You don't know how many people ask me if I've gone into uniform design, but it's just another level of detail. I hand-designed all the uniforms.
Was that something you were passionate about doing or just part of the job?
It's just physical presentation of your staff to the outside world. The first person you're greeted by is the doorman, then the bellhop, the housekeepers and the concierge. I think it's a very important part of the experience. It's part of the brand, and it has zero to do with any interest in going into fashion design.
It's that sort of level of detail our buyers expect, and our hotel guests will expect it on that same level. Every detail, whether it's the items that go on the spa menu or choosing the artwork for the hallways. There really aren't too many details that are too small. It's actually been like a fun, really creative process, and my brothers and I have a lot of fun with it.
Some of our best ideas are really small ones. The experiences we have in other hotels we stay in. I'm bombarding Jim Petrus [chief operating officer] with e-mails, and other ... things we have to do at a specific property.
About staying in other hotels, is it part of a scouting process to see what the competition is doing?
There's a bar that's constantly raised. In the last decade, it's really been elevated. You can say the physical structure in Chicago is the best building that the Trump organization has ever built in terms of the bones of the building, in terms of the amenities. I just really loved working on it.
I think that after a certain point, the details are what elevate the experience.
There are certain hotels I see around the world where it's the same doorman every time you visit. The same driver picks you up at the airport. They greet you, and they know your name. They put a bookmark in your book when you leave it on your bed and you leave your room. It's these little touches that I always remember and that define the experience. Even in some cases they're an inferior standard of building.
We've got the how-to-build side down, and extending into the hospitality has been a lot of fun because it just continues to push us. We're constantly learning from everything we see around us, and we're constantly improving what we have for our guests.
You just returned from a long business trip, correct?
I was in Israel, Dubai, Abu Dhabi. I was in Amman, Jordan, in one week.
Of all the areas you've visited, where are you looking to expand the brand next?
We have the brand equity of a company that's penetrated every market. That's the beauty of it. You look at the other large hotel operators; they are in most of the markets they want to be in. Now they're looking for ways to evolve, or they're trying to create destination spots. For us, the world is really open so we can choose to strategically expand based on the feedback we're getting from our guests. Based on some of the obvious markets that provide synergies for our existing hotels and based on a general business strategy.
Right now, we have a hotel in Dubai [pointing to an artist's rendering tacked on the wall next to her desk]. It's gorgeous. One of the towers is a hotel, the other is condominiums.
Initially it was gold, and it looked like a tulip. We literally peeled away the shell of the tulip. It evolved. Our marketing material shows the organic nature of the evolution of the design. It was a very fun process, but to me it's an architecturally breathtaking building. It's got a simplicity and an elegance to it, and it's really cutting edge as well.
Incidentally, for the real estate component of that project, we're only in presales. You won't see an advertisement for that anywhere. In June, we will commence official sales. We're literally going to our buyers who have been loyal to the Trump brand over the years, and many of them are multiple buyers across our whole platform.
The price-per-square-foot we're achieving in our presales, it's higher than anything that's sold in the region that I've ever seen. That's comparing with the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world, which is 120 floors, under construction and has been selling for four years.
That has been, from a sales perspective, one of the greatest successes.
How about sales? Are the properties selling? Granted, the brand caters to the richest class, but has the economic downturn, at least in the U.S., affected your business?
One could argue that everything has been affected, but where there's adverse condition there also lies opportunity. I think that as a brand we have the ability to hedge against the domestic downturn by moving into markets moving into the upswing.
I was in Egypt as well. I think there's incredible potential for growth in Egypt. I have some exciting ideas for that region of the world.
Care to share what those are?
No, not yet.
We have the flexibility to be agile in the locations we choose to go to because the recognition is continuous. And in a lot of cases we do better in those markets because we never previously entered them. There's been no previous ability to buy into our product or stay at one of our hotels, and it creates an enormous level of excitement when my father comes to town for the first time or whatever it may be.
My dad was in a very different position in the early 90s--we had great timing. In softening markets, our product sold out, in Las Vegas, the hotel-condo. We opened about 60 days ago. We're 100% sold out at that building. It's a great experience, and we have no leverage in a time when there is no cash. So we have no leverage, a lot of cash on the books. Domestically, we're looking at buying opportunities. Internationally, we're looking at hotels, branding, etc. opportunities. In some ways we can adjust our strategy.
Two years ago, we weren't looking at buying opportunities because we could get a good deal. Money was cheap and people were paying an enormous premium. Now money is not cheap.
What's the attraction to these emerging markets for hotels? What parts of the world are drawing in the Trump brand?
There are some that are obvious--London, Paris, major cities are important to have in your portfolio. We have Chicago, Las Vegas. We have others that are emerging like Panama. We have a massive project there, but when I first went there--probably my first week at the Trump Organization--the fundamentals were just there. The Panama expansion, the billions of dollars, millions of people coming into work, the tax incentives, the Johns Hopkins and medical facilities that were being created in the region. The lack of adverse weather conditions and the quality of life that people could buy into.
That seemed like an obvious market, and we've had great success with that particular project. There's a balance of being a pioneer and also having to anchor that with projects that are equally successful, but in more mature markets.
We have a great building under construction in SoHo, which will be open this time next year.
Construction has resumed on that?
Yes, we're up and going and will enclose the building shortly. We're two floors away from topping it off.
Is it selling?
Our price per square foot that we've been achieving on that property, we've not released a unit for less than $3,500 a foot, which is really amazing.
We have Trump International uptown, which caters to a certain market. I have friends from Los Angeles who come into town, and it really doesn't matter, they'll take the compromise of quality just to be downtown. There are certain people you can't convince. They say Upper East or West Side, you know. They want to be downtown, and they'll stay downtown. And as a result, they get inferior room size, inferior amenities.
It's a posh hotel, but it's definitely not a five-star standard by any stretch. It's aesthetically geared toward the younger generation without being chintzy. I didn't want to do anything trendy. It has a very contemporary feel that's rooted in luxury, but that doesn't compromise the quality that is expected in sort of a traditional uptown property.
To have 12,000 square feet of spa and fitness facility and the amenity fee in a building in New York is almost unheard of. We're going to have an incredible spa, restaurants, libraries; it's really pretty awesome.
In reference to the SoHo development, a property that has had its share of bad news during construction, as a business leader, how do you face these challenges and handle the issues that arise with any property around the world?
Challenges are what you learn from ultimately. I mean I'm 26 years old. There's a whole lot I haven't experienced. There's a whole lot I haven't learned, and in some ways the market's been so good for so long, like it's easy. It's easy to fall into a pattern of stability that you want a little shakeup. You want to live through some tougher times too.
I think it's the challenges that are ultimately what defines you. I remember more. I take more of the things that I didn't do well and learn from, than perhaps the things that came naturally.
Do you ever see yourself being CEO?
Oh sure. 100%. I see myself never leaving this organization. I see myself continuing to grow it. I see myself continue to work with my brothers. I wouldn't want to exceed them, and I wouldn't want to fall behind them. I'd love us to work as a collective. Together we can do more.
I'm very fortunate about the fact that I don't have to worry that one of us is incompetent or one of us is lazier than the other. That would drive me crazy. That would be a problem because I'd be like, you know what, you don't deserve it. I would articulate that. I could not tell you which of us is more hardworking, and we think the same way. We can do more deals because there are three of us. And obviously, my father loves us being able to do deals with him as well.
In terms of spearheading my own initiative, I have my own jewelry company which I am the president of and make all the decisions on. I have a great partner who is a pure diamond guy who has been terrific. And I'm on the board of directors
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There's something about being a Trump that seems to bring these things on...
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