Trump Golf Course Scotland

[Alonzo-ny]

Aberdeen site will set new standards in the 'home of golf'
Date: 31 March 2006
Author: Stephen Sharp
Donald Trump, whose passion for golf is well documented and whose mother was born in Scotland, plans to design and build a spectacular golf development on an 800-acre stretch of stunning sand dunes at Menie Estate, Aberdeenshire, in the northeast part of Scotland.

The Trump Organization, which already has $200 million invested in the U.S. golf industry, is in the preliminary stages of a planning application to build the multi-million-dollar project located just minutes outside Europe's oil capital, Aberdeen, and close to world renowned links courses such as Cruden Bay, Royal Aberdeen and Murcar.

The development, which will be known as Trump International Golf Links, Scotland, will be comprised of two championship golf courses, a five-star hotel with associated facilities, a state-of-the-art golf academy and a turf grass research centre. The development will also include a mixed use residential element.

The courses will be Donald J. Trump Signature Designs, in association with Tom Fazio, nephew of the legendary American golf course architect Tom Fazio, and his firm, Tom Fazio II, LLC. The land, which is set among towering dunes beside the North Sea, has been acquired. Planning and permitting is underway and work is scheduled to commence by September 2006, with a course opening scheduled for spring 2008.

"Mr Trump was committed to identify a world-class traditional links site in the Home of Golf and Menie Estate was chosen because it satisfies all of the strict project criteria set out by The Trump Organization," said Ashley Cooper, executive vice president, Acquisitions and Development for The Trump Organization. "Our goal is to create the greatest links golf courses in Scotland as part of a golf development that will become the finest in Europe, if not the world."

Membership details for Trump International Golf Links, Scotland will be announced in the future. Cooper confirmed that The Trump Organization is committed to maintaining strong ties with the local community and to working closely with all of the various representatives to ensure that the development would integrate into and bring maximum benefit to the region.

Projected project costs are not available but Cooper estimated that the new links course alone would be in excess of $18 million (£10 million). The ultimate cost of the development will depend on the final outcome of the planning application, which will be submitted to Aberdeenshire Council in May. It is anticipated that costs will be in excess of $500 million.

Scottish Enterprise, through its international arm Scottish Development International, has worked closely with The Trump Organization. Commenting on the proposals, Scottish Enterprise's chief executive Jack Perry said: "This is a very welcome application which has the potential to impact favourably not only on the economy of the northeast of Scotland but on the country as a whole. Investments such as this help Scotland to improve its tourism product and gain a valuable profile in world markets.

"The Trump Organization is renowned for the high standards it sets in its commercial ventures worldwide and if the planning application is successful then Scotland will undoubtedly benefit from being part of such an expansive and successful chain of golf properties."

VisitScotland chairman, Peter Lederer, said: "With one of the most authentic and diverse golfing experiences possible, Scotland is renowned as the home of golf and as a top quality destination for visitors from across the world and this development further confirms this strong reputation. That Scotland is the first choice in Europe for a corporation with the international profile of The Trump Organization, shows we truly are leading the way."

Donald Trump's passion for Scotland stems from his pride in his Scottish roots. His mother, Mary MacLeod, grew up on the Island of Lewis in Stornoway where her first language was Gaelic, before moving to New York City at age 20. His decision to build the Trump International Golf Links, Scotland is the fulfilment of a long-held dream.

The Scotland project will join five other Trump Golf Properties:

Trump National Golf Club in Westchester, New York;
Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey;
Trump National Golf Club, Los Angeles, California;
Trump International Golf Club, Palm Beach County, Florida; and
Trump International Golf Club on the island of Canouan in the Grenadines.


Dont know if you guys heard about it, this is amazing news for Scotland!

[brianac]

From The Times
October 10, 2007
The fisherman standing in way of Donald Trump’s golf course


David Lister, Scotland Correspondent

He is the man standing in the way of one of the world’s most famous billionaires. A gruff, obstinate Scotsman who has refused to bow to the financial might of Donald Trump and his vision for the world’s finest golf course.Michael Forbes, a humble salmon fisherman whose family has lived behind the sand dunes at Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, for 40 years, yesterday pointed to the boundary of his land and shook his head. “That’s where the golf course will be,” he said. “Fifty yards away on that side and fifty yards away on the other.” To say that Mr Forbes, 55, is a thorn in Mr Trump’s side is an understatement. His 23 acres of land sit directly between the tycoon’s two proposed 18-hole golf courses and a planned 450-bedroom five-star hotel. A golf academy and driving range would be next door. Just a few hundred feet away would be the majestic sweep of Trump Boulevard, the main access road to the £1 billion resort. “I’m right in the middle, you see,” Mr Forbes said yesterday. “I wasn’t against the golf course from the start, but then they just went mental because I wouldn’t sell. They said they’d make my life a misery and they are.” Mr Forbes’s land, where a saltire hangs in one corner and a barn emblazoned with the words “No Golf Course” greets visitors as they arrive along the single-track unmade road, has become an embarrassing symbol of defiance to Mr Trump. “All my family came from around here. My grandfather fished down here and all my uncles as well. I’m the last in line and I’ll see it out.”
Although the billionaire has insisted that he will build around Mr Forbes’s property, his irritation burst into the open this week when he launched an extraordinary attack on his neighbour. Describing the land as “in total disrepair”, Mr Trump said: “Take a look and see how badly maintained that piece of property is. It’s disgusting. There are rusty tractors, rusty oil cans. I actually asked him, ‘Are you doing this on purpose to try and make me look bad, so I have to pay some more money?’”
The dispute has all the hallmarks of the plot of Local Hero, the 1983 cult film in which an American tycoon seeks to buy a tiny Scottish village, though on this occasion the dispute is about golf, not oil. Mr Trump has submitted plans to turn a 1,400-acre site at Balmedie, 13 miles north of Aberdeen, into “the world’s greatest golf course”, with two championship links courses, a five-star hotel, a golf academy, almost 1,000 holiday homes and about 500 private houses. He hopes permission will be granted in the next few months, but faces strong opposition from conservation groups, who claim that the plans will do irreparable damage to the dunes and the wildlife they contain. But while Mr Trump has fought environmental concerns with flattery and argument, his problem with Mr Forbes is one with, at the moment, no apparent solution. Mr Forbes’s 83-year-old mother, Molly, who lives opposite, will see the golfers as they pass her mobile home, which has the name Paradise hanging on the wall. She said: “I came here to live in peace and quiet in my Paradise, but the golf course is going to spoil the look of our quiet area.”
Mr Forbes refuses to apologise for the state of his land. “If I had the money [Mr Trump] has this place would be a palace as well. You should have seen it here eight years ago, it was much worse.” He said the tractors were used on his land and the oil drums were needed to burn rubbish. Over the past 18 months Mr Forbes has received two offers, the first for £350,000 and then, a month ago, the second for £375,000. He claims that he is now being pestered. He insists that his refusal to sell is not a ploy to force a higher price, but a desire to stay in his own home.
A spokesman for Mr Trump denied that Mr Forbes was being pestered.
George Sorial, one of Mr Trump’s senior advisers, said that Mr Forbes had been abusive and aggressive towards his colleagues on at least two occasions. He said: “We have been the good neighbour. Mr Forbes is the bad neighbour here.”

[lofter1]

You've Been Trumped – review

FOUR out of Five STARS

THE GUARDIAN
July 5, 2012



Superficially, this is a tub-thumper, a stonking panto smackdown between Donald Trump, riding roughshod over the law and the landscape in his bid to build a colossal golf course in Aberdeenshire, and the revolted locals fighting compulsory purchase. You've Been Trumped works rousingly as that: first-time director Anthony Baxter neatly marshals arguments and wrangles warring sides. He's helped by the scale of the hubris on display: the toadying and the arrogance, the cheek of the villains and the charm of their victims. But Trumped finds breath for subtler touches to make a complex portrait of a singular wilderness. It treads lightly on the earth: an example, as well as an education.

***

Tripping Up Trump

Tripping Up Trump (TUT) has established itself as the popular movement against the use of compulsory purchase for private profit.

TUT's campaign has stood alongside the people and protected environment threatened by Donald Trump’s development in Aberdeenshire.

The TUT campaign has been key to Donald Trump's retreat from the use of compulsory purchase orders.

The threat of forced evictions was deliberately held over the heads of the Menie families for nearly two years. Donald Trump's track record shows he cannot be trusted to behave reasonably towards his neighbours or act responsibly towards the environment. He has bullied and mislead from the start.

TUT is committed to supporting the rights of the families at Menie and will highlight and seek to stop any further bullying or other wrongs by the Trump Organisation in Scotland.

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