Meni Benish immigrated from Georgia to Israel at age 10 without knowing Hebrew. Years later, when his father suggested he return to explore business opportunities in the country where he was born, he was not particularly enthusiastic. About two decades have passed since then. Archi, the company he founded in 2006, has become Georgia’s largest real estate company and is now a partner in one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken in the country: a six-tower complex with an estimated investment of about $2 billion, centered on Trump Tower Tbilisi.
The tower is expected to be the tallest in Georgia, with apartments selling at prices unprecedented in the local market. “For me, as an Israeli developer, to bring this brand to Georgia is wow,” Benish told ynet.
A little more than 20 years ago, when he arrived in Georgia to see whether there were business opportunities there, Tbilisi was a very different place from the city where he and his partners now plan to build a tower dozens of stories high bearing the name of the U.S. president.
“The first time I arrived in Tbilisi, the city was dark,” he recalls. “I landed at night and as the plane was coming in, you couldn’t see anything. I said, ‘What do you mean, do they have a power outage?’ Now the city looks completely Western — illuminated, thriving, beautiful and clean.”
His personal journey was far from straightforward. Benish was born in the port city of Poti and immigrated to Israel with his parents and sister in 1979. “I arrived without the language. I learned the word ‘shalom’ on the flight,” he says.
Adjusting to life in Israel at the time was not easy. “As a child, there were a lot of jokes about Gruzinim,” he says, using the term then commonly used in Israel for Georgian Jews. “Back then people said Gruzinim, not Georgians. I set myself the goal of speaking proper Hebrew within a year, and I did.”
Meni Benish, one of Archi’s owners
(Photo: Courtesy)
The Trump Tower project is the Trump brand’s first in the region and aims to position Tbilisi as a new international hub for business, investment and lifestyle at the crossroads of Europe and Asia
Years later, it was his father who brought him full circle. The visit that initially failed to excite him gradually turned into a business venture. Benish met the people who would become his partners, including Ilia Tsulaia, and began buying land and recruiting investors. Within about a year, the first project was underway: a 77-apartment building.
“For me, it was a side business. It even took me time to learn the names of the neighborhoods where we were building,” he admits.
Things have changed since then. According to Benish, the company has completed about 55 projects over the years and some 53,000 people now live in apartments it has built. The company is currently advancing more than 30 projects, most of them in Tbilisi, alongside projects in Batumi, Kobuleti, Sioni and other areas. But even after dozens of projects, Trump Tower is in a different league.
The Trump brand’s first project in the region
Perhaps the best way to understand the scale of the change for Benish is through a small story he tells about Archi’s early days. When the company began operating in Tbilisi, much of the city’s housing stock consisted of Soviet-era buildings that were 50 to 60 years old.
“There were buildings where you had to put a coin in the elevator to get home,” he says. “There was no building committee collecting maintenance fees, so you had to insert a coin to make the elevator work.”
Trump Tower Tbilisi will not stand alone. It will be the signature landmark of The Downtown Tbilisi, a massive six-tower complex overlooking the Georgian capital’s new Central Park. The development is expected to have a total built area of about 600,000 square meters, with an estimated investment of about $2 billion.
The master plan combines luxury residences and a luxury hotel, high-end office and retail space, gourmet restaurants, entertainment venues and a premium business center. According to the partners, the result will be an integrated urban destination unlike anything else in the region.
The first Trump-branded project in the region is intended to position Tbilisi as a new international center for business, investment and lifestyle at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.
The project is being developed in cooperation with the Trump Organization. Archi Group and INVIA are the project’s main partners and developers, the Sapir Organization is serving as a co-developer and Block Stone Capital, Koba Ivanov Group and Villaro are participating as minority investors.
Designed by international architecture firm Gensler, the tower is expected to rise about 65 stories, making it the tallest building in Georgia.
Eric Trump. Building Tbilisi’s most luxurious tower
(Photo: Bloomberg)
The connection with the Trump Organization was established through the group of partners. The deal was officially announced in April, with a photograph of the partners seated around a table with Eric Trump, Donald Trump’s third child, marking the culmination of the business process. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters also reported on the deal and plans to make the tower the tallest in the city.
“When we know what Trump represents for us today as Israelis, that supportive shoulder — for me personally, to bring this brand to Georgia now and be part of a project that is the absolute cream of the crop in the city, it’s wow,” Benish says.
In this case, the Trump name is more than a gold sign that will hang at the entrance. According to Benish, representatives of the organization are involved in the project’s details, from design to public relations.
“They are involved in absolutely every detail,” he says. “At the level of the building’s design and at the level of the apartments’ design.”
Benish: Trump Tower will be the most luxurious in Tbilisi. In Israel, $7,000 per square meter is a laughable price, but there it’s the most expensive
Benish describes the standard of the finishes in terms usually reserved for the world’s luxury hotels.
“This is a luxury tower at a level that doesn’t even exist in Israel. The finishes will be on par with the Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton. This isn’t an ordinary residential apartment. It’s super high-end. Everything, down to the curtains, carpets, chairs, armchairs and sofas, is designed according to their standards.”
The price will also be exceptional by Georgian standards. According to Benish, launch prices are expected to start at around $7,000 per square meter and reach about $10,000 per square meter on the higher floors. Later, as construction progresses, he estimates that prices for some apartments could reach as much as $15,000 per square meter.
“It will be the most luxurious tower in Tbilisi,” Benish says, adding: “In Israel, $7,000 per square meter is a laughable price, but there it’s the most expensive.”
He says an initial list of prospective buyers has already formed following the project’s announcement, with a significant share of inquiries coming from Dubai, both from local businesspeople and foreigners living in the emirate.
Dr. Samson Pkhakadze, Ilia Tsulaia, Eric Trump, Alex Sapir, Lasha Kvachadze and Zaza Pachulia
((Photo: Courtesy of the Sapir Organization)
The developers are not primarily targeting Georgian buyers. “Very few Georgians will buy apartments in the tower,” Benish says. “Most will be foreigners buying apartments as investments. We’re targeting diplomats, businesspeople and people who have businesses in Georgia and don’t live there but want to have an apartment of their own.”
Behind the glossy renderings lies an engineering and financial challenge for the Georgian market. Benish says Trump Tower alone will encompass about 100,000 square meters and that its direct construction cost is expected to exceed $200 million, even before some interior design and finishing costs are taken into account.
A tender is currently underway to select the construction contractor, with a foreign company likely to be chosen.
“There is no experience with a project of this scale in Georgia,” he explains. Companies from Turkey and Azerbaijan are among those under consideration, he says.
For Benish, the project also represents a major step up from the large developments he has already built.
“Trump Tower and the overall project are significantly larger than anything we’ve done to date,” he says. “Even in Kobuleti, where we’re building 35-story towers with a casino and commercial center, it doesn’t come close to this scale, partly because of the standard.”
The tower will also be marketed to Israelis
Benish is not the only Israeli connection to the story. In recent years, Israelis have become a significant force in Tbilisi’s real estate market. According to a survey by Georgian investment bank Galt & Taggart examining projects by major developers in the city, Israeli buyers accounted for 12% of sales in the first seven months of 2025, compared with just 2% for Russian buyers. Israelis were the largest group of foreign buyers in the sample.
Benish plans to market Trump Tower in Israel as well and has already opened an office in Herzliya. But the tower is intended for the very top end of the market, rather than another inexpensive investment apartment in Batumi. Benish believes the brand itself will attract capital to Tbilisi that might not otherwise have reached the city.
Benish: Very few Georgians will buy apartments in the tower. Most will be foreigners buying apartments as investments. We’re targeting diplomats, businesspeople and people who have businesses in Georgia and don’t live there but want to have an apartment of their own
He is not alone in seeing a change in Georgia’s status. According to the International Monetary Fund, Georgia’s economy grew by 7.5% in 2025 after several years of rapid growth, with annual growth averaging 9.3% from 2021 through 2025.
For the developers, the arrival of major international brands and developers in the local market serves as a kind of seal of approval, while also raising the bar for prices and ambitions.
Those ambitions will get a Hollywood-style backdrop next week, when the project’s official launch event is held in Tbilisi with Eric Trump, businesspeople and representatives from various countries in attendance. Benish says the event alone will cost more than $1 million. For him, it has become far more than the launch of a real estate project.
Two decades ago, he started with a 77-apartment building in a city where, as he recalls, people sometimes needed a coin to operate the elevator. Now he and his partners are planning to place the Trump name above that same city, higher than any other building in Georgia.