The European wing of Donald Trump’s golf empire now extends beyond Scotland.
An entity controlled by the New York City-based golf mogul has acquired the financially beleaguered Lodge at Doonbeg in County Clare, Ireland, a 400-acre oceanfront property that will henceforth be called Trump International Golf Links Ireland. In a comment published by the Belfast Telegraph, Trump called Doonbeg an “incredible golf resort” that he intends to transform into “an unparalleled resort destination with the highest standards of luxury.”
Doonbeg, which was created by the people who developed Kiawah Island, features a 218-room hotel, a spa, restaurants and a well-regarded Greg Norman-designed golf course. It had been handed over to receivers earlier this year.
The sales price hasn’t been announced, but the receivers were reportedly asking for £12.4 million (almost $20.8 million).
Trump may find himself in a familiar fight at Doonbeg. A Clare-based group has submitted plans to build nine wind turbines, each more than 400 feet high, on a site a little more than a mile south of the village of Doonbeg. Trump hasn’t yet commented on the proposal. Local officials are expected to vote on it next month.
Trump recently lost the legal challenge he’d made against the off-shore wind farm that’s planned to take shape within view of his golf resort in Scotland.
With the wind farm’s construction now a veritable sure thing, Trump has terminated his remaining development efforts in Aberdeenshire – no vacation houses, no five-star hotel and especially no second golf course, the one that was named in honor of his late mother.
“Wind farms are a disaster for Scotland, like Pan Am 103,” Trump told the Irish Times.
Partly as a result of the legal proceedings, however, Trump can claim a small victory: Late last year, the wind farm’s developers were forced to delay the construction by two years. At the earliest, the turbines will begin operation in 2017.
