Is Trump real estate just a hat full of hot air......?

Bruce Willis Agrees To Sell New York Apartment At A Loss

2011-04-18T09:23:00.002-05:00

Desperate times…

In 2007, Bruce Willis purchased a condo at Trump Place on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for $4.26 million. Today, he is putting it on the market for $3.9 million.

His loss is quite a steal, if you can manage it - thee-bedrooms, high ceilings and a gorgeous view of the Hudson River. We're sure Bruce had a lot of good times in that place as well, but times being what they are, its just too hard to maintain such an expensive joint.

Whomp, whomp!

Source

TRUMP also fails to build his tower in Dubai

2011-02-03T10:56:00.002-05:00

Trump Organization, the US company fronted by real estate mogul Donald Trump, has refused to confirm or deny reports it has scrapped its Trump International Hotel & Tower Dubai.

Ali Rashid Lootah, the chairman of Nakheel, indebted developer behind the project, was reported as saying the $2.9bn project had been cancelled and would be replaced with a shopping mall.

When contacted by Arabian Business, a spokesperson for the New York-based Trump Organization said she couldn’t confirm or deny the cancellation.

The project is however still listed on the real estate magnate’s website as “coming soon”.

Trump International Hotel & Tower Dubai, a 62-storey mixed used building on the Palm Jumeirah’s Golden Mile, was first announced in 2005.

The project was launched with several star studded gala events in Los Angeles and New York in 2008.

At one point the project’s penthouse became the most expensive property in Dubai with one buyer offering AED11,100 ($3,022) a sq ft, or almost AED110m.

Property prices in Dubai have plunged by more than 60 percent since the onset of the global financial crisis. In December Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) said more than half of the planned projects in the emirate have been cancelled or delayed.

Nakheel was at the heart of its parent company Dubai World’s debt troubles that saw the state-backed conglomerate restructure some $25bn in loans.

In May 2009 Nakheel said work on the residential and hotel project had been suspended indefinitely. Several months later Donald Trump Jr. said that building work on the billion-dollar project would not happen “any time soon” but said he hoped construction would begin in 2011.

“It’s going to take some time...I would say it's not going to happen any time soon," he said, adding: “There is a time for a project like that in that location.”

Source: http://www.arabianbusiness.com

Donald Trump is looking to the stars for advice after another TRUMP tower north of Miami Beach became the latest victim of Florida foreclosure

2010-11-20T09:47:00.008-05:00

MIAMI — A tower named after US billionaire Donald Trump was the latest victim Friday of the mortgage crisis, with lenders foreclosing on the 200-unit luxury condominium project.

"Trump Hollywood," an imposing 41-story beachside tower in Hollywood, north of Miami Beach, offered condominiums with prices ranging from one million to seven million dollars, but only 25 of the units sold, realty consultants said.

Units could be purchased with an initial downpayment of 20 percent of a given property's value and a mortgage on the remainder, but the deep recession and a sharp fall in property values spelled troubled for investors.

"The condo crash was destined to occur because the developers sold too many units to investors who didn't live in them," said Lewis Goodkin of Miami-based Goodkin Consulting.

"It created a false demand that drove up prices."

Property values in Miami have nearly halved, dropping 47 percent since 2006 at the peak of the housing bubble, according to Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller home price indices.

About 5,000 properties, including homes, condos and commercial properties, are taken over by banks in the Miami and Palm Beach areas each month due to mortgage defaults, according to Condo Vultures, which currently has a database of 236,000 foreclosed units in southern Florida.

Trump, a developer tycoon who stars in his own reality show "The Apprentice," said this week he is now seriously considering a run as a Republican candidate for the presidency in 2012.

Partners Say Trump Was Desperate to Derail $1.8 Billion Real Estate Deal

2010-05-03T22:09:00.002-05:00

MANHATTAN (CN) - After losing two lawsuits and multiple appeals in New York "in a 5-year litigation campaign," Donald Trump has threatened to file another "extreme and Draconian" action out of state to derail a $1.76 billion real estate deal, his former partners say in New York County Court.
"In 1994, when Trump was in serious financial straits and his bank, Chase Manhattan, was threatening to foreclose on a $200 million mortgage, Trump freely entered into limited partnership agreements that vested the General Partners with full control over the Partnerships' business and ownership," the complaint states.
The partner-plaintiffs are four corporations and four limited partnerships operating under the name Hudson Waterfront.
That mortgage involved development of the Riverside South Properties, which the partners sold in spring 2005 to the Carlyle Group and Extell Development Co. for $1.76 billion, according to the complaint.
Under terms of the partnership, Trump ceded control over the properties in return for "a passive 30 percent interest with limited rights, and the new investors contributed all of the money and the risk of losing that investment," the complaint states.
"Since 2005, Trump has sought to use litigation to escape from those agreements," Hudson Waterfront says.
"Two Commercial Division Justices dismissed all of Trumps claims ... a unanimous panel of the Appellate Division, First Department, affirmed dismissal of the claims in Trump I, and the Court of Appeals declined to review that decision," the complaint states.
After Trump's most recent legal failure, the court warned him that he "narrowly avoided the imposition of costs or sanctions ... Continued prosecution of claims without basis ... will place [Trump] beyond this point," according to the complaint.
"Apparently recognizing that this New York Court would not tolerate Trump's filing of further meritless claims, the draft complaint is styled as an action in the Delaware Court of Chancery," the companies say.
Hudson Waterfront says Trump's "latest theory" is that the partnerships "were dissolved in May 2007 by virtue of an acquisition by a subsidiary of Vornado Realty Trust, a multibillion-dollar publicly traded corporation, of the shares of foreign companies that indirectly own the General Partners."
But the partners say Trump "abandoned" efforts to prevent that transaction, and the New York courts have dismissed his efforts to dissolve the partnership.
The Hudson Waterfront companies seek a judgment declaring that the partnerships were not dissolved and that the partnerships are not subject to judicial dissolution.
The plaintiffs are represented by Robert J. Guiffra Jr. with Sullivan & Cromwell.
source: http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/05/03/26895.htm

TRUMP Farallon Estate, Where is the USD 350 Million investors paid?

2010-03-31T08:21:00.007-05:00

Trump Cap Cana (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

Posted on DR1.com on March 30, 2010

What a disappointment, prolly more so than anywhere on the island we've seen.

The Donald, have you even visited your Dominican namesake recently? You should. Because you'd be embarassed.

After all the hype...wow. Nothing. Maybe less than nothing. Besides the Farallon restaurant (which is very nice) the entire area...including the Trump signs...looks like a bad B movie: sand piles, rusty electric boxes, cactus, dead flowers, crap all over the paved road, and signs falling apart.

What a joke. The 180 degree panarama photo was taken standing in the middle, east of the restaurant.

That's it! This picture wasn't taken to show Trump Cap Cana badly. That is what you see everywhere. It is comical to see all this...nothingness...and still see a helipad with room for 6 helicopters...and even rocks, sand and brush all over it....
read more from the........ eyewitness report here

END of POST

Dominican Watchdog is currently investigating what happened to the USD 350,000,000.00 - Three Hundred Fifty Million Dollars!! That investors paid to Donald Trump and Cap Cana for this. Visit Dominican Watchdog or follow the Cap Cana and TRUMP Farallon updates from here

Trump Soho Is Screwed

2010-03-29T09:15:00.004-05:00

Trump Soho, a 46-story glass needle in New York's money ghetto, will open in two weeks.

Only a third of its 391 condo/hotel rooms have been sold. Bank of America just unloaded a $75 million loan on the project for a fraction of its value. The developer is restructuring another $350 million of debt.

The Donald, of course, is fine. Because he didn't put any of his own money into the project.

The Donald is also okay because, unlike homeowners who fret about the morality of walking away from mortgages, he views that the lenders who loaned the project all that money as adult business-people who did it because they were trying to make a profit.

They screwed up. They trusted him. That's their problem.

source: www.businessinsider.com

Related article from Wall Street Journal:

By CRAIG KARMIN

The Trump SoHo hotel and condominium has too many vacancies.

The 46-story building is scheduled to open April 9 in Manhattan. Sales were initially brisk, but only about a third of the 391 units are now in contract. What's more, it isn't clear how many of those will actually close, because that process won't begin until the hotel opens.

The Trump SoHo was met with neighborhood criticism for its size.

The hotel, which was announced on a episode of Donald Trump's hit television show, "The Apprentice," is another of the boom-time projects that looked easy to finance until the recession hit. Recently, Bank of America dumped a mezzanine loan on the project for a fraction of its $75 million face value, according to people familiar with the matter. Now, the developer is in restructuring talks with lenders who hold some $350 million in debt.

The Trump SoHo's disappointing sales expose a huge fault line in the condo-hotel business model. The developers' strategy was to sell the units—at prices starting at $1.2 million for a studio—to investors who would be allowed to stay in them no more than 120 days a year. The rest of the time the units would be operated as hotel rooms under the Trump brand with the investors and the developers sharing the profit.

But sales of units in condo-hotel projects throughout the country have ground to a halt because it's so difficult for individuals to get credit. Instead, most investors would have to pay cash, and many are reluctant to do so when the overall hotel market is so weak.

Other condo-hotel projects under the Trump brand have run into trouble. The Trump International Hotel & Tower in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., faces foreclosure after developers defaulted on a $139 million loan, though the Trump Organization had only a licensing agreement that has since been terminated.

The issues facing the building also provide the latest glimpse into how Mr. Trump has managed to navigate the economic downturn largely intact. As was the case with many of his projects over the past 15 years, he has invested none of his own money in the Trump SoHo. His deal with the developers, a venture of Sapir Organization and Bayrock Group, is primarily a hotel-management and licensing arrangement

Meanwhile, the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Las Vegas—in which Mr. Trump was a major equity investor—last year was in restructuring talks with its creditors partly because 70% of the buyers of its units didn't close on their deals. That development recently successfully paid down a large portion of its construction loan and got an extension on the rest.

Mr. Trump has had a long history with condo-hotels. He helped reinvigorate the business in New York in 1997 when he opened the Trump International Hotel & Tower.

The developers of Trump SoHo chose the condo-hotel model because the building is in a manufacturing zone, which bars them from offering permanent residences. To move forward, they agreed to build a condo-hotel where owners can't stay for more than about four months a year, or for more than 29 straight days during any 36-day period.

But neighbors in SoHo complained about its scale and architectural style. At 454 feet, the boxy glass tower dwarfs the cast-iron buildings in the historic district that surrounds it. The deal the developers cut with Mayor Michael Bloomberg to enable the condo hotel to go forward "perverts the intent of the zoning regulation," said Stuart Klein, an attorney for SoHo Alliance, a local preservation group.

Donald Trump Jr., executive vice president of development and acquisitions for Trump Organization, said that the community attitude has changed. "People who were initial detractors now realize the positive benefits the project will have on the area," he said.

The property took on national prominence in 2006, when Mr. Trump unveiled the new project on his TV show. His children, Ivanka, Eric and Donald Trump, got involved in the building's design decisions and marketing, pitching the project as a five-star hotel for a hipper crowd than those at Manhattan's midtown and uptown luxury spots. Under his marketing and licensing deal, Mr. Trump and his children were given an equity stake of about 18%.

Initial interest was promising. About 1,000 investors submitted "reservations," or nonbinding expressions of interest to buy, according to the people familiar with the matter. But this caused a debate among the partners. Mr. Trump and Bayrock wanted to charge around $2,200 a square foot for the condo units. They estimated that at that price, they could pay off the $275 million in senior debt by selling about 50% of the 391 units, these people said.

Given that interest, the other development partner, Alex Sapir, wanted to charge no less than $3,000 a square foot. The other partners got him down to around $2,900 a foot for initial buyers. But after the first 100 or so units went to contract in the fall of 2007, buying stalled and there has been scant activity since, said the people familiar with the project.

One lender has already bowed out. When Bank of America recently sold mezzanine debt with a $75 million face value to senior lender iStar Financial for a small fraction of that amount, it suggested that the bank saw its loan as essentially worthless, say industry experts.

IStar is now restructuring that debt. Andrew G. Backman, an investor relations official for iStar Financial, the senior lender, added: "We are not currently planning on foreclosing on the project."

Trump SoHo anticipates a boost in interest when guests check in after the hotel opens. But like most condo-hotel buildings, the business model relies on condo sales to provide most of the revenue.

By 2013 or 2014, Trump SoHo should be able to charge more than $600 a night for a hotel room, said Roland deMilleret of HVS, a global hotel consulting firm. But for now, he estimates room rates will be in the low to mid $400s. "During that ramp-up period, they need to rely on condo sales, and that will be challenging," he said.

Trump Soho and its neighborhood antagonists share at least one victory. After the condo-hotel compromise, the city changed its zoning laws so that no other developer is likely to be allowed to build a property as high as Trump SoHo.

"It will never happen again," Mr. Trump said.

Write to Craig Karmin at craig.karmin@wsj.com

Trump name no guarantee of success for South Florida condo-hotel projects

2010-03-19T13:11:00.002-05:00

The condo-hotel known as Trump International Hotel & Tower on Fort Lauderdale beach faces foreclosure, but that's just one of several projects in South Florida linked to real estate mogul Donald Trump.

The South Florida ventures typically involve licensing the Trump name under certain conditions, not equity investments from Trump or his New York-based Trump Organization.

In Broward County, Trump's name graces only one property now open: the Trump Hollywood, a 200-unit condo tower that debuted last summer.

Plans for the 95-unit Trump Las Olas condos in Fort Lauderdale never materialized.

And Trump appears to have pulled away from the unfinished 298-unit condo-hotel on Fort Lauderdale beach that now faces foreclosure by an investment group led by Starwood Capital.

Here's an update on Trump projects in the area, culled from interviews and Sun Sentinel archives:

Trump Hollywood: Opened in mid-2009, the 41-story beachfront tower boasts 200 condos that were selling last summer at prices starting at $1.3 million. Preconstruction prices in 2006 began at $1.5 million.

Developers were Miami-based Related Group, led by Jorge Perez, and Boca Raton-based Ocean Land Investments. The Trump group was to be involved in marketing, unit design and quality control.

Trump Las Olas Beachfront: Announced in 2006, this Fort Lauderdale project at 550 Seabreeze Blvd. has not been built.

Plans called for a 12-story tower with 95 units ranging in price from $500,000 to $3 million. Developers had hoped to break ground in late 2006, but they lost momentum as the real estate market overheated.

Trump International Hotel & Tower on Fort Lauderdale beach: The 298-unit condo-hotel at 551 N. Fort Lauderdale Blvd. is nearly finished but not open. The developer had told condo buyers they would open by late 2008.

The new mortgage holder filed for foreclosure March 11 on a $139 million loan to developer SB Hotel Associates.

Many buyers who put 20 percent deposits on condos have sued, seeking refunds and in some cases, damages for delays in closing. Some buyers also allege misleading advertising and fraud, contending they paid a premium for the Trump name and now find that Trump may not be involved in the project at all.

Trump Grande in Sunny Isles: This 1,034-unit, three-tower complex in north Miami-Dade County is owned by Dezer Properties, which also has developed other ventures in Sunny Isles and in New York.

Trump has a licensing agreement with the Dezer group, developer Gil Dezer said Tuesday.

For condos, the Trump group generally gets involved with design and quality control before construction and receives a percentage of the condo sales price. For condo-hotels, Trump usually gets a sliver of hotel revenue and keeps a close eye on service quality, according to developers active with Trump.

The project features a condo-hotel, the Trump International Beach Resort, a 32-story tower with 372 rooms and suites, a spa, two restaurants, three lounges, a tennis center and 22.000 square feet of space for meetings and banquets, among other amenities. It initially was managed by hotel group Sonesta, but in 2008, switched to the International Resorts Management Group.

The complex also features the Trump Palace, a 55-story tower with 278 condos that opened in 2006. Dezer said the Palace was a "textbook condo deal," presold starting in 2003 when the real estate market was in a solid upswing and sold out at its opening.

A second 55-story tower with 384 units known as the Trump Royale missed that upswing. Presold starting in 2005, buyers made deposits on units at prices up to $1,000 a square foot during the boom.

But when it came time to close on units in November 2008, after the market fell, just 35 percent of buyers closed on their condos, Dezer said. In recent months, about 120 units have sold at prices ranging from $500,000 to $3 million. The average price on all Royale sales to date: about $550 a square foot, he said.

Trump Towers Sunny Isles: Another Dezer Properties venture in Sunny Isles, this 813-unit beachfront complex features a trio of 43-story towers, each with 271 condos. The Related Group was involved in construction, but left the venture Dec. 31.

Dezer said the first of the three towers opened in 2008 and has sold out. Tower Two opened in 2009 and is about half-occupied. Tower Three is built, with sales contracts on its units.

"Our big question now is how many of those contracts in Tower Three are going to close?," Dezer said, referring to the tough real estate market in South Florida.

To bear Trump's name, Dezer said, condo documents specify the towers keep certain service levels, including valet parking. He said the Trump name helps his group sell condos faster than other developers might, even with identical apartments.

source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business

Trump Sued For $10 Million Over Never-Built Condos

2010-03-09T09:42:00.005-05:00

A group of seven individuals filed suit against Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and others for fraud, negligence, accounting and other counts regarding a hotel condominium complex in Baja.

The plaintiffs are seeking at least $10 million dollars in damages.

In court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, the lawsuit states, "Plaintiffs are a group of individuals who were duped into buying hotel-condominium units that were never built. With the complicity of defendants, the developers of the units depleted Plaintiff's deposits - even though they never broke ground on the project, much less obtained the necessary building permits or construction loans.

"The Trump Defendants falsely led Plaintiffs to believe that they were financial backers of the project, known as the "Trump Ocean Resort Baja. The project was located in northern Baja California, Mexico - a 30 minute drive from downtown San Diego, CA."

The resort was to have consisted of 526 suites and cost approximately $200 million dollars. It was supposed to include a spa, swimming pool, restaurants and shops. According to the lawsuit, the project "failed. Today the project site shows little sign of construction other than a large excavation with six cement pads at the middle of the site."

The plaintiffs say that Trump's involvement wasn't what they were led to believe, "contrary to what plaintiff's believed, Trump had only licensed the use of his name to the project and was not involved as an equity partner and had never invested any of his own money in the project."

The docs also state that Trump Ocean Baja had its own Web site, which is now defunct, and that the project was featured on Trump.com and that it has now been removed.

The plaintiff's also charge that Donald's adult children, Ivanka and Donald Jr., were used to promote the project. Furthermore, the suit alleges about Ivanka Trump, "when various plaintiff's questioned Ivanka with regard to whether Trump was merely licensing his name to the project, Ivanka denied the same and replied that Trump was a developer and held an equity interest in the project."

See source and read the lawsuit in full

Trump Facing Lawsuits in Florida

2010-02-21T18:34:00.002-05:00

Donald Trump is one of several Florida developers facing lawsuits from customers who bought during the height of the market and now want their money back. “More suits seeking refunds under a federal law regulating condo sales have been filed in South Florida than in the rest of the country combined,” according to a recent study by Bloomberg News.

Trump Atlanta Site Faces Foreclosure

2010-02-21T18:26:00.003-05:00

Trump Atlanta

Lenders foreclosed this week on the site for the oft-delayed Trump Towers Atlanta, which was getting the Trumponian sales push three years ago.

The land for the project could be sold at auction as early as next month, according to local press reports.

Hailed as The Donald’s first foray into Atlanta, the first phase of the project featured a 48-story tower with 360 condominium units, priced between $500,000 and $1.6 million. In 2007, “after just weeks since the opening” of the sales center, the Trump Towers Atlanta was “nearly one-third sold,” a press release proclaimed. Construction was set to begin in 2007 with a grand opening planned for 2020.

Homeowner bids to meet councillors over Trump land fight

2009-09-17T14:50:00.003-05:00

ONE of the four homeowners facing eviction to pave the way for Donald Trump's £1 billion golf resort is demanding the right to address a meeting of Aberdeenshire Council where the threat of compulsory purchase orders is due to be debated.
David Milne, who is refusing to sell his cottage overlooking the area where the main championship course would be built, has accused the tycoon of planning to "steal" his land in a modern-day version of the Highland Clearances.

He has already vowed to take his fight to the courts, if necessary, to prevent his home being seized as part of the developing master plan for the Menie estate site near Balmedie.

Councillor Martin Ford, a leading opponent of the Menie scheme, has tabled a motion, due to be debated at a meeting of Aberdeenshire Council on 1 October, opposing the use of CPO powers at the Menie estate.

Mr Milne, who lives with his wife Moira at Hermit Cottage – a former Coastguard station he has owned for 17 years – said he had written to the council's director of law and administration requesting permission to speak to the council meeting.

He said: "It is my intention to try and convince the councillors that compulsory purchase orders to support a commercial development are immoral and unethical.

"It is quite clear that most of the population of Scotland and the UK as a whole are horrified that such a draconian power is available to a commercial operation, a power that puts the home ownership of every citizen of this country at risk."

The Trump Organisation claims a request to use compulsory purchase order powers will only be made as a last resort.

Meanwhile, Tripping Up Trump, the umbrella group formed to oppose the Menie estate plans, has announced it has now recruited 1,000 members.

source: news.scotsman.com

Trump Tower Tampa penthouse buyer: Where's my $1.2 million?

2009-09-10T04:56:00.002-05:00

Read more about this failed project in Tampa, Florida branded in the name of TRUMP - tampabay.bizjournals.com

The Trump Business Isn't Real Estate, It's Branding

2009-09-10T04:30:00.003-05:00

We've noticed a pattern in failed projects tied to Donald Trump. When they are being promoted or marketed to the public, the connections to Trump are played up. When they fail, the Donald claims his only connection to the project was a licensing agreement that allowed his name to be used.

This happened with Trump Mortgage. When it was launched, Donald Trump spoke before a crowd packed into the atrium at Trump Tower about the magnificent company. When it failed, Trump more or less claimed he had nothing to do with the company. Now, the same thing seems to have happened with a construction project in Baja, Mexico. Watch the video below to see how Trump scurries away from the project bearing his name, leaving investors with the pain.

We're sad to see that he's now got Ivanka Trump, his daughter and one of our favorite economic gurus, selling the same line of nonsense. (via Cityfile)

source: www.businessinsider.com

Donald Trump and Selina Scott in row

2009-09-10T04:21:00.005-05:00

The pair first traded insults in 1995, shortly after the broadcast of a documentary in which Scott interviewed the billionaire.
Now the documentary has returned to public attention after DVDs of it were sent to councillors in Aberdeenshire, where Mr Trump plans to build a controversial £1 billion golf resort.
Mr Trump used the distribution of the DVDs to launch a fresh attack on Scott, branding her a "third-class journalist".
In response, Scott suggested the tycoon was making himself "look as ridiculous as the thatch he wears on his head".
Mr Trump's plans for the Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire include hundreds of homes and two championship courses, and have attracted opposition from environmentalists in particular.
The DVDs were sent anonymously to all 68 members of the council, along with a note stating: "Know who you are dealing with."
Mr Trump's representatives attacked the move as a "smear", and Grampian Police confirmed they were looking at whether a crime had been committed.
The documentary, in which contributors questioned Mr Trump's business dealings, features interviews between him and Scott at locations in the US.
Weeks after it was broadcast, Mr Trump described Scott as "obnoxious, repetitive and not at all very smart".
Scott responded by saying the tycoon had "an ego as big as the Empire State Building".
In his latest attack, Mr Trump said: "Selina Scott was a third-class journalist who is now ancient history and she treated me unfairly. It was a boring story then and she has since faded into oblivion where she belongs."
Scott again hit back, telling the Scotsman newspaper today: "Whether beautiful, protected, wild country should be ploughed up for hotel accommodation, in order to enhance Mr Trump's corporation in America, is a matter for the good citizens of Aberdeenshire.
"However, once again Mr Trump has made himself look as ridiculous as the thatch he wears on his head."
The distribution of the DVDs was criticised by George Sorial, managing director for international development at the Trump Organisation.
He said: "It's an attempt to smear Mr Trump in some way. It's pathetic. If you have something to say about the project, you should stand up and say it. I think these anonymous submissions are truly the actions of a weakling and a coward."
Mr Trump's Aberdeenshire plans were initially thrown out by a council committee, before the Scottish Government called them in and approved them last year.

source: www.telegraph.co.uk