New details about the Trump Tower to be built in Kolozsvár, home to tens of thousands of Hungarians

Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca) will receive a 30-storey skyscraper, as the city’s authorities—led by former Romanian PM (2008–2012) and current Mayor Emil Boc—have signed off on the urban-planning consent for the project. The Trump Tower will be in the Someșeni district of the city, and its construction is part of the second phase of the Transilvania Smart City development.

Trump Tower in the former capital of Transylvania

Kolozsvár is the second most populous city in Romania, a centre of education, culture, and information technology in the country. The city has more than 30,000 indigenous Hungarians, as it belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary until 1918 and between 1940 and 1944. The Trump family plans to build a 30-storey skyscraper hotel, which will be 140 metres high, as part of the Transilvania Smart City project.

The project aims to create collective housing, educational facilities, separate districts for public institutions and services—including schools and other civic amenities—alongside green spaces attached to main traffic arteries. The residential blocks will rise only to 36 metres (10–11 storeys); public service buildings will be 12 storeys high. At least 40% of the newly designed district will be green spaces.

Mayor supports the new tower and other project elements

Mayor Emil Boc has publicly endorsed the project, as he believes vertical developments and constructive dialogue with financially capable investors are essential to Cluj-Napoca’s long-term growth. He added that today’s outlying districts would become quasi-central in three to five decades.

The idea for the new Trump Tower was first revealed at an international fair in Cannes last year and aims to create Romania’s first Trump-branded city-centre project. The hotel tower will be in the heart of the new district, and Eric Trump—the president’s son and chairman of the Trump Organization—is formally involved in the Cluj venture.

The Trump Organization has long licensed its name to luxury condos, hotels, and golf courses from Manhattan to Honolulu, and has steadily expanded into markets such as the Persian Gulf. The Cluj initiative is the latest in this global rollout and, unlike some recent overseas deals, is portrayed internally as one that does not pose obvious conflicts with the president’s foreign-policy agenda.

Controversy over the perimeter, ownership

According to RomaniaTV.net, the site of the district is the Pata Rât landfill, which serves as home to an informal Roma settlement. Most families were moved there by force, and housing rights campaigners believe the project only sells illusions to buyers who cannot see the social and environmental realities—only the championship-style future golf courses, the glass-fronted tower, and other residential buildings.

Before, a Romanian politician envisioned a mixed-use complex with a heliport and a funicular link to the airport, but the project failed due to alleged corruption and property disputes. SDC’s managing director, Ştefan Berciu, has stated flatly that the development will proceed only on plots where ownership is clear and uncontested.

A local partner and a flamboyant fixer

The Trump Organization is working with SDC Properties as its on-the-ground developer, while also drawing on the services of Avram Gal—a Romanian politician with a flamboyant public persona and a reputation for deal-making. Gal says he is involved in the project only as a friend of the Trump family, not as a consultant.

Trump is very popular in Romania, but there is a lot of scepticism about the project due to the history of stalled developments, the proximity of the Pata Rât waste site, and the question of how the Roma residents will be treated in the area’s transformation.

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