Donald Trump is planning on expanding his Scottish property business with the construction of a residential property development at Turnberry, the luxury golf resort on the west coast of Scotland that he owns.
According to multiple newspaper reports, the US president’s Trump Organisation is currently drawing up plans for the property development at the Ayshire resort, which would include 225 homes, a range of leisure facilities and retail shops. The report says the homes would be designed as ‘high-end private residential homes for retirement living’.
The news of the plans broke at the same time that a fifth of workers currently employed at the Trump Turnberry are due to be made redundant next month, as the resort reels from the three-month closure and the absence of tourists.
According to an email leaked to a Scottish newspaper by one of the employees at the estate, 66 members of the 305-strong workforce are due to be laid off from August 16, as the Trump Organisation seeks to lower its overheads in the face of a significant loss of current and forward bookings.
The email sent to workers at the Ayrshire course reveals proposed cuts across all departments. The proposed hit list includes 25 manual workers, 12 clerical staff, eight professionals, 12 managers, and six technical jobs.
Trump acquired the Turnberry hotel and its three golf courses for $60m in 2014. He resigned his directorship in 2017 after becoming US president, handing control to his sons, Eric and Donald Jr. Companies House accounts show Turnberry’s holding company, Golf Recreation Scotland Limited, has lost nearly $54m since 2014.