Investment
Meet the Philippine Property TItans With Ties to Trump
Mar 20, 2017
Written by
Abram Brown
Sustainability Expert
A freelance writer and editor with a passion for storytelling, this writer specializes in lifestyle, health, and travel content,
Meet the Philippine Property TItans With Ties to Trump
ROBBIE ANTONIO winds his way through full-scale models of the apartments that he and his father, Jose, are selling in a new residential tower in Manila. The units, which start at $160,000, are accented by cool grays and blues, and like many other Antonio projects, they're a cobranded affair, featuring minimalistic, Armani-designed interiors. "They don't even want much art on the walls," Robbie says.
The Armani partnership is evocative of the Antonio business model. In the 31 years since Jose founded the $230 million-in-annual-sales Century Properties, the Philippine economy has blossomed, and they have responded to the growing demand for increasingly plush apartments and offices with the first condominiums in the Philippines, an ultraluxe Manila tower called Gramercy Residences and a man-made beach with a beach club designed by Paris Hilton. They often work in partnership with Western brands like Armani, Missoni and Versace--and, full disclosure, with Forbes Media. The Antonios broke ground last year on a Forbes-branded Manila office building.
A few blocks away from Forbes Tower is a Trump-branded, Antonio-built residential tower. The $150 million, 57-story tower is nearly ready to open. "Trump has been a very positive experience," says Robbie (who also runs a startup that builds high-design modular homes). And most of the Trump experience has revolved around the friendship Robbie has forged with the Trump children Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr.
The Antonio-Trump relationship has morphed in the last couple of months. Back on October 13, Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, who has earned the deep enmity of the West for his brutal antidrug war, named Jose as the Philippines' special envoy for business and trade to the U.S., the Philippines' third-largest trading partner.
Jose refused to discuss the envoy role with Forbes and is keeping a low profile. An Antonio spokesman says Jose's trade envoy role is a "non-governmental, non-policymaking" position. Instead, the spokesman says, Jose's "priority is the enhancement of the Philippines' and U.S.' business relations."
And who could better strengthen business relations between the Philippines and a Trump America than a Trump business partner?
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