The Trump Organization has announced plans to build a tower on Australia’s Gold Coast – a project its local partner claims will be the tallest building and “the best” resort in the country.

The US president’s business arm said the Trump International Hotel & Tower Gold Coast will be his brand’s first project in Australia, releasing a statement on Monday to announce the “landmark development” would “rise in the heart of Surfers Paradise … one of the world’s most iconic beachfront destinations”.

The statement promised “additional details” would soon be unveiled.

The acting Gold Coast mayor, Mark Hammel, said in a statement his council would “welcome investment in the city”.

“A formal development application will be required, and we look forward to considering the application once it is received,” Hammel said.

Queensland property developer David Young posted a picture of himself shaking hands over signed documents with the president’s son, Eric Trump, in a white and gold gilded room in Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida base.

The CEO of Altus Property Group wrote that the photo with Trump Organization’s executive vice-president marked the signing of hotel management and brand licensing agreements. Young noted the moment occurred on Valentine’s Day and claimed it was 19 years in the making, beginning with a cold call to Ivanka Trump.

“The Trump International Hotel & Tower Gold Coast development I’ve been pursuing for almost 20 years is going to be Australia’s tallest building before the end of the decade,” Young wrote.

“At 340 metres in height, and 91 stories [sic], it will out-stretch the ‘Australia 108’ building in Melbourne by 15 metres and leave every other Australian resort property in its wake when it comes to luxury.”

Another proposed tower on the Gold Coast, One Park Lane, however, plans to soar to more than 390m.

Young wrote that a third of the proposed Trump tower would be “a 6-star resort-hotel”, with another third made up of 270 apartments.

According to Young, the first five floors would be a retail plaza with “high-end brands as tenants, and will also include event facilities, a beach club and swimming pool … Michelin-starred restaurants and lavish bars”.

“There’ll be 24/7 butlers, valet and town car service, beach cabanas, and the famous Trump concierge service for guests and residents,” he wrote.

Renders of the Trump Tower show the resort spilling out on to the famous white sand of Surfers Paradise. In recent years the city has hosted controversial trials for private beach bars on its glitter strip.

“We are now deeply into a process of design, engineering, construction and fit-out that will cost a shade under A$1.5bn,” he wrote.

Young claimed construction at the 3 Trickett Street site would start this year.