Posted on 05/19/2011 9:14:55 AM PDT by Notary Sojac
Another vacant season winds to an end for the grand hotel formerly known as Trump.
The yellow and blue tower, one of the few modern structures in Broward County designed by a world renown architect, should have been the throbbing heart of the renaissance on Fort Lauderdale Beach.
It’s empty. As empty, perhaps, as the Trump brand that was used to lure investors into a condominium-hotel scheme that would collapse before a single guest signed the register. The architectural flourishes of the 24-story building, with great portholes looking out over A1A, were meant to evoke the old fashioned “elegance and grace of the luxury ocean cruise liners.” In retrospect, maybe the Titanic.
More than 100 investors bought into the 248-room project in 2005 and early 2006, putting 20 percent down for units priced between $500,000 to $3 million.
Lawyer Joseph E. Altschul, who represents purchasers holding stakes in some 50 units, said his clients had bought into that Donald Trump allure. The Trump name. The Trump luxury hotel network. And they paid, he said, about $200 more per square foot over comparable condo-hotel projects along the beach for that magical Trump name.
Preconstruction brochures assured buyers that “Mr. Trump is committed to personal and direct involvement in everything that this name represents.”
Not so much, as it turned out. Two years ago, when the project fell into foreclosure, Trump told the Sun-Sentinel, “We have nothing to do with the building. We had a licensing deal, and we terminated the licensing deal a long time ago.”
Altschul said his clients were shocked to learn that the famous name used to jack up the prices on investment packages for a luxury hotel project was just another cheesy Trump marketing deal. “Trump International” carried no more meaning then the logo fixed on Trump shirts, Trump suits, Trump ties, Trump chocolate bars (“Each bar is packaged in a beautiful and luxurious gold, silver, or copper casing”) Trump crystal, steaks, vodka, lamps, bottled water, mattresses. And, of course, “Donald Trump by Donald Trump,” which turns out to be a fragrance. Spray it on for “citrus notes with hints of mint, cucumber and black basil.” And the subtle whisper of mendacity.
The New York Times reported Friday that would-be condo buyers who lost hefty deposits in two other Trump buildings, condos in Tampa and Baja California, were similarly stunned to learn that the failed projects were “Trump” in name only. Trump’s lawyers pointed out that if the buyers had closely examined the sales contracts, they would have found the obtuse language indicating that The Donald was only the front man in someone else’s real estate deal. He rented his name to the Tampa project for $4 million and a cut of the never-to-be profits. (The Times also reported that consumer complaints and lawsuits were piling up against the unaccredited but very expensive Trump University, with its courses in get-rich-like-me real estate and deal making.)
So the Trump International on Fort Lauderdale Beach was no more authentic than the would-be presidential candidate’s descent into the birther conspiracy. Just a famous name attached to an empty lie.
Altschul’s clients have lawsuits pending before two judges in Broward circuit court. Hapless investors are up against the mortgage holders for what money can be salvaged from the remnants of this sorry enterprise.
The building itself was completed, except for the main restaurant and a few other features, more than two years ago. Since then, the whimsical Michael Graves building has been an architectural meditation on the risks and complications of the condo-hotel financing model.
Graves, by e-mail, told me, “One of the most frustrating and often disappointing aspects of an architect’s career is when great projects go un-built. In the case of the Trump International Hotel on Fort Lauderdale Beach, the frustration is similar, yet subtly different.” Graves added, “Overall, as a part-time resident of Southern Florida, I believe we made a significant contribution to the architecture landscape of Fort Lauderdale Beach, and I am proud of that.”
But until this giant foreclosure mess is settled and a new buyer steps up, Graves’ luxury liner of a hotel, the unTrump, will remain the unrealized element in the old spring break town’s extravagant ambitions. “A void on the beach,” Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler called it. “A missing piece of the puzzle.”
Other new beachfront luxury hotels, the Atlantis, the W, the Ritz-Carlton, the Hilton, now lure high-rollers onto the old strip. But the gaudiest brand of them all was only a misnomer.
That's "just another cheesy Trump marketing deal" for those of you who missed it the first time.
Trump would make a great ‘Rat.
Trump made a bunch of these bad marketing deals where he lent his name, but took no responsibility. The was one in Mexico where people lost their life savings on. Although it wasn’t Trump’s really his name is on it ... You take the good and you take the bad.
Aha, the MSM “trash Trump” syndrome continues.
And what - exactly - has ANY journalism major done?
Evah?
(Not that I think much of Trump, but he did succeed in forcing the Obamaloon clown troup of felons to produce an even more obvious faked birth certificate.
Hillbillies with fat wallets.
There are no journalism majors seriously suggesting that I vote for them for President.
“You pays your money, you takes your chances...”
Much like the "team of investigators in Hawaii" who "were coming up with a lot of important information".
It still amazes me that there were Freepers gullible enough to fall for that s--t.
Pretty much this. And an awful lot of people fell for it (even some here on FR) - particularly the birther types who can't let go of a dumb conspiracy theory.
Where is all that "amazing" stuff Trump's investigators supposedly found in Hawaii? Trump said his PI's "couldn't believe what they were finding"? So where is it Donald?
Maybe Trump can license his name to another candidate.
Well, as I’ve been saying on all of the Trump threads, The Donald is a public relations master without peer. In this case, he was a masterful political salesman.
He did a great job pushing the Birth Certificate issue. But he has no principles, and his record is very liberal.
My first thought was that he was working for Hillary when he first started pushing the birther issue.
My second thought was that he planned to be a Perot-type spoiler, pulling votes away from the Republican candidate.
My third and, at this time, last thought is that he was actually working for Obama. The birth certificate issue wouldn’t go away, more and more people doubted that he was born in America, so they decided to put out another COLB. But how to explain why Obama delayed three years and then suddenly changed his mind?
That’s where The Donald came in. He gave Obama the perfect excuse for producing a new birth certificate and saying, “OK, you wanted me to produce it. There it is. So shut up!”
And it was obviously timed. They got the bin Ladin raid ready, then they told the Donald to go ahead, and then they produced the fake COLB on the White House website, and then before anyone could explaink to people for more than a couple of days that it was a fake, along came the bin Ladin announcement, and weeks of preening for the cameras and spiking the football.
And Trump announced, “I won,” and promptly disappeared back to his contract with The Apprentice. I very seriously doubt whether he will mention the issue again. He has done his bit, and very effectively, too.
The only trouble, of course, is that the new COLB is such an obvious forgery that it will now continue to simmer, until Obama pulls his next propaganda ploy to distract attention from it, with the eager cooperation of the Lamestream Press.
Just like this Condo, the BC show is over, and The Donald is off to his next piece of business. Maybe Obama will give him land for a Casino hotel on top of a piece of property where some oil company was about to dig a well. Something like that.
Nothing on Earth is as funny as a young man (it was truly staggeringly funny back in the early 90s) who has fallen for the Trump manly money thing.
I wonder how long it would take for Trump to stop someone using the name TRUMP for a hotel without paying him. You can’t have it both ways.
While I am sure Trump was attractive to those who question the BC, I would be willing to bet you the overriding reason for the attraction was the fact that Trump was taking it to Obama PERIOD. As of today, NO ONE is taking it to Obama. I am glad all the Trump haters feel good, but our country is going down and now that Trump has been silenced, all we hear are cricket chirping. Party time. But seriously, is anyone concerned that we have no viable candidates??
Well, as I’ve been saying on all of the Trump threads, The Donald is a public relations master without peer. In this case, he was a masterful political salesman.
He did a great job pushing the Birth Certificate issue. But he has no principles, and his record is very liberal.
My first thought was that he was working for Hillary when he first started pushing the birther issue.
My second thought was that he planned to be a Perot-type spoiler, pulling votes away from the Republican candidate.
My third and, at this time, last thought is that he was actually working for Obama. The birth certificate issue wouldn’t go away, more and more people doubted that he was born in America, so they decided to put out another COLB. But how to explain why Obama delayed three years and then suddenly changed his mind?
That’s where The Donald came in. He gave Obama the perfect excuse for producing a new birth certificate and saying, “OK, you wanted me to produce it. There it is. So shut up!”
And it was obviously timed. They got the bin Ladin raid ready, then they told the Donald to go ahead, and then they produced the fake COLB on the White House website, and then before anyone could explaink to people for more than a couple of days that it was a fake, along came the bin Ladin announcement, and weeks of preening for the cameras and spiking the football.
And Trump announced, “I won,” and promptly disappeared back to his contract with The Apprentice. I very seriously doubt whether he will mention the issue again. He has done his bit, and very effectively, too.
The only trouble, of course, is that the new COLB is such an obvious forgery that it will now continue to simmer, until Obama pulls his next propaganda ploy to distract attention from it, with the eager cooperation of the Lamestream Press.
Just like this Condo, the BC show is over, and The Donald is off to his next piece of business. Maybe Obama will give him land for a Casino hotel on top of a piece of property where some oil company was about to dig a well. Something like that.
And he did bring up issues that are much of USA’s problems today. It is good Trump is out of the mix even if there was a glimmer of hope that he represented someone who would take on the the very important Constitutional issue of eligibility.
It was Jim Geraghty at NR who suggested that Trump’s “ostentatious taste would prompt Liberace to urge him to ‘tone it down a little’”.
Trump terminated his marketing deal with Conservatism as well. It was just a sales gimmick, yet many on this forum and elsewhere were taken in by it.
Trump has not "been silenced" He chose to stop saying stupid things. He made birther conspiracy theories the centerpiece of his potential campaign and had the whole thing blow up in his face when Hussein released his long form. Trump had no answer to it and couldn't produce any of these "amazing" things he told us his investigators were finding. He looked like a fool and most certainly realized it. He has an image to preserve and to do so he promptly dumped his birther followers and dropped any presidential ambitions he might have had.
Now that’s funny.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.