Industry News

SALES OFFICE OPENS FOR TRUMP TOWER IN TORONTO

Donald Trump, the flamboyant New York real estate developer, sent both his son and newly hired TV-star apprentice to Toronto yesterday to officially open the sales office of his proposed $500-million, five-star hotel and condominium tower in the city's financial district.

The Trump Organization, overcoming an embarrassing false start last year and discarding the conventional thinking that Toronto's downtown condo market is cooling, is now accepting deposits on condos priced between $500,000 and $14-million in what would become Canada's tallest building.

Nudged onto the corner of Bay and Adelaide streets, which currently serves a car-rental business, the 68-storey condo-hotel tower will sit on the smallest parcel of land on which Mr. Trump has ever built a tower.

But what the project lacks in footprint, it promises to make up for in luxury.

Company officials boast of semi-private elevators for each residence, butler services and floor-to-ceiling windows as high as seven metres.

"Sometimes it takes an outsider to change a neighbourhood," said Russell Flicker, a senior vice-president of the Trump Organization.

The preliminary prices of the condos are so high that Toronto real estate analysts privately question whether there are enough buyers in the city who can afford them.

Even some real estate brokers given an advance look at plans several weeks ago were dubious.

But Donald Trump Jr., a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business in his mid-20s, told a cramped media gathering in the showroom that the Trump International Hotel & Tower Toronto will change the skyline and elevate the downtown real estate market, while at the same time give the Trump empire its first development on the international stage.

Trump believers say the real estate icon will find buyers among the super-rich, especially among foreigners who are looking for safe places to park their money.

The Trump brand cannot be underestimated, said Harry Stinson, a Toronto developer who has already begun construction on a condominium hotel around the corner called One King West.

"You may not like the guy's hair, but in New York Trump has shown he can get twice the price per square foot as competitors," he said.

"I'm getting $600-$700 a square foot. Donald Trump can get $1,000 easy. I'm just a little schmuck. He's Donald Trump."

Before Mr. Trump gets anything, however, he will have to win final city approval.

City council approved one plan for the site last July, but there have been significant-enough changes since that a resubmission is currently under review by the city's planning department.

"It is up to the board to determine the fate of the project," said Gregg Lintern, manager of community planning in the city planning division.

In addition, two neighbours have appealed council's decision to the Ontario Municipal Board.

Trump plans call for the lower portion of the building to house the 229 hotel guestrooms. The collection of 100 residences will rise from the 36th floor.

Similar to a planned project in Chicago by the Trump Organization, all the units in the building will be sold as condominiums, and buyers of the hotel suites will be able to rent them out.

In the six months since the Trump Organization opened the sales office for the Chicago project, 60 per cent of the units have sold and prices have appreciated by 40 per cent, said Bill Rancic, who snagged a top job on the project after winning NBC television's hit reality show The Apprentice, which starred Mr. Trump.

However, construction hasn't yet started on the 90-story Chicago tower, which also still needs final approval from the city.

For more information on condo hotels, please call Condo Hotel Center at (305) 944-3090 or send an e-mail to info@condohotelcenter.com.