The developer of the Surfside collapse site plans to pump at least $20 billion into data centers across the U.S.
Dubai-based Damac Properties, led by Hussain Sajwani, will target data centers in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas, President-elect Donald Trump announced at a news conference on Tuesday, CBS News reported. The data centers primarily target artificial intelligence and cloud services.
Damac, known for its luxury residential projects mostly in Dubai as well as across the Middle East and London, for years had been trying to break into the U.S. real estate market, Sajwani told The Real Deal in a 2022 interview. It made its American debut that year, closing on the $120 million purchase of the Champlain Towers South collapse site in Surfside. Damac was the only bidder for the site where Champlain collapsed in 2021, killing 98 people.
As of May, Damac planned a 52-unit, Zaha Hadid Architects-designed luxury condo project on the oceanfront property.
Now, Sajwani, who has had close ties with Trump and his family over the years, seemingly has plans to supercharge the firm’s U.S. investment. Sajwani, who is in his early 70s, was at Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach when Trump made the announcement of Damac’s data centers bet.
“It was amazing news for me and my family when he was elected in November,” Sajwani said, CBS News reported. “We’ve been waiting for four years to increase our investment in the U.S. to a very large amount of money.”
Since the election, Sajwani was also spotted at Mar-a-Lago at a New Year’s Eve event, posting an Instagram photo of himself standing between Trump and Elon Musk.
In Dubai, Damac’s projects include the 42 million-square-foot Damac Hills, which opened the Middle East’s first Trump-branded golf course in 2017. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. were guests of honor at the opening.
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The announcement of Damac’s data centers investment comes as Trump has vowed his administration will expedite environmental permits for companies investing at least $1 billion in the U.S.
It also comes as data centers have emerged as the new darling asset class. Microsoft has budgeted $80 billion for data centers this year, more than half of which will target the U.S., while other behemoths such as Amazon and Blackstone also are making hefty investments in data centers.
––– Lidia Dinkova