Thread by @MartynMcL

EXC Trump Org’s plans for major expansion of Turnberry, its flagship overseas resort, have been rejected. @EricTrump hoped to build housing & luxury villas at lossmaking property, but failed trying to get land in Q rezoned. My @TheScotsman story. Thread 👇 scotsman.com/news/trump-s-p…

What’s little known about @realDonaldTrump’s 2014 deal to buy Turnberry is that he not only acquired the hotel & golf course, but approx 200 acres of land, @RegistersofScot title deeds show. It's mainly agricultural, with a few outbuildings & a disused @RoyalAirForce WW2 runway.

Here's an aerial shot which gives you some sense of the scale of the landholding Trump owns at Turnberry.

Now, the purchase of that land came as no surprise to @realDonaldTrump. He hinted to @Reuters in 2016 that the true value of his golf resorts lay in property. “I'd have the right to build at least a thousand houses on Turnberry, if I wanted to,” he said. (Pic: @2point8_photos)

.@realDonaldTrump’s been occupied of late. But @EricTrump, exec VP of the Trump Org, has seized the initiative. He's been personally pursuing the housing development at Turnberry, even hiring a Scottish architect firm to try and push them through. (Pic: @2point8_photos)

The Trump Org’s plans for Turnberry, a historic name in golf & four-time host of the Open Championship, only came to light after I submitted a FOI-style request via the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004. It compels public bodies to disclose environmental info.

What Trump Org proposed was smart & flew below the radar. It didn’t submit a planning application for the housing/luxury villa development. It tried to have the ‘prime agricultural land’ around the resort redesignated by planners to allow for development.

This was all done via what’s known as LDP2, a proposed plan by the local authority, @southayrshire, which sets out a lengthy, detailed planning framework. It’s an important document, but it’s also a hell of an antidote for insomnia.

The Trump Org enlisted architects @CovellMatthews to impress upon planners the merits of its proposals. It pointed to @realDonaldTrump’s firm’s “excellent track record of investment in the area” & said the plans would be “very positive” for the predominantly rural region.

None of these representations were public. But here are the letters sent by Trump’s architects. I obtained them via a request to @southayrshire under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004, which isn't well known, but works a bit like FOI or FOIA in US.

As you’ll see, the Trump Org wanted to build a housing development of 87 units, and an unspecified number of luxury holiday villas. Here's a graphic map of the proposed development area next to Turnberry, which gives you a better idea of its size relative to the existing resort.

A paucity of info about the housing (“a mix of types and sizes with large private gardens”) means it's hard to say how much £ the Trump Org hoped to generate via sales, but using the crude & prob conservative tool of Zoopla average house values in the area, I put it at £15m+

I previously chatted with Turnberry’s general manager, Ralph Porciani, about the housing plans. He told me: “Does Turnberry want to do it? 100% yes. The Trump Organisation have it in their radar and are quite excited." Ralph's a nice dude, and cares about the historic resort.

One of the resort's previous owners, Starwood, ruled out trying to develop the same land, deciding it “wasn't really going to be attractive,” according to Vasant Prabhu, its CFO. The Trumps, with their own unique approach to financing and investment, evidently felt differently.

Now, if you’re a keen golfer (or a serving member of the USAF), you’ll likely know Turnberry occupies  a glorious rural nook of Scotland, with panoramic views across the Firth of Clyde. And that, unfortunately for the Trump Org, is how @southayrshire want it to remain.

A spokeswoman for the council told me: “Our planning department have advised that the [Trump] sites were assessed against a range of environmental and planning criteria … it was concluded that they should not be recommended for release through LDP2."

Not only have planners ruled against allowing @realDonaldTrump’s land to be built on, the LDP2 includes a policy which presumes against development that would “negatively affect the status of Turnberry.” Vague, sure, but v much weighted against Trump's real estate ambitions.

Which is, it goes without saying, v bad news for @realDonaldTrump. This development would have been a money spinner. Meanwhile, Turnberry has run up cumulative losses of nearly £33m under the US president’s ownership & is reliant on £107m in loans.

A wee birdie tells me @EricTrump has been wielding his ballpoint pen and signing off on numerous accounts for the Trump Org's UK entities. So hopefully I'll find out more about the £££ soon.

I asked Trump Turnberry and the Trump Organisation in New York if it was planning to appeal the proposed LDP2 plan (currently out for consultation) & whether the decision would impact on future investment at the loss making resort. No one’s got back to me.

I'm pursuing multiple stories about the Trump Org / Trump admin deals in Scotland, but a reporter is nothing without tip offs. My DMs are open. Encrypted email is [e-mail] Thanks to those who've helped, and to rest of you for reading/sharing. Don't be a stranger.

Quick reply to folk in my @'s Qing @EricTrump's tweets last week about an approved housing development. That was for Trump's Aberdeenshire course, which was passed despite being opposed by 21,637 people. It received 3 (three) letters of support: scotsman.com/news/politics/…