'He fell apart': Billionaire Solomon Lew on the demise of former business partner Donald Trump

WA Today: … In a sea of failed business deals, Donald Trump’s 2006 partnership with Australian billionaire Solomon Lew appears to be an aberration.

It was so successful that it netted the now former US president a cool $US48 million for a day’s work. The deal even landed a place in the book of Guinness World Records.

Back then, Trump's brand was undergoing a revival on the back of two years of hosting the hit reality TV show The Apprentice. It didn't take long for Lew to realise he was on to a winner.

All that was required of Trump was to lend his brand to a hotel and condominium development Lew was spearheading in Hawaii and then show up at the Imperial Hotel ballroom in Tokyo to gladhand a bunch of Japanese buyers and have his photo taken with them under the US and Japanese flags.

Buyer interest in the condominiums soared. More than 1700 parties were prepared to hand over a $US20,000 (refundable) deposit just to have the opportunity to bid on the 465 units.

Keen to capitalise on exclusivity and demand, Lew’s team organised for Japanese and American bidders to be herded into two ballrooms - one in Tokyo with Trump and the another at the Hilton in Honolulu. They had one day to bid.

It took eight hours to sell the lot. Under the terms negotiated with Trump, he got a cut of every dollar over the reserve price but did not invest a cent….

read … 'He fell apart': Billionaire Solomon Lew on the demise of former business partner Donald Trump

2010: New Trump hotel still mostly empty