International Property Journal - News and information on global property markets

Trump site on the coast of Scotland

Construction could begin as early as Thursday on Donald Trump’s new golf course project on the coast of Scotland, after a local council approved the plan.

However, the Aberdeenshire council won’t rule for several weeks on Trump’s controversial plan to build more than 1,400 holiday homes around the sandy dunes of the waterfront golf course. Located near Aberdeen, the project was initially turned down at a local level, but eventually gained support over the objections of environmentalists.

Turns out only about one-third of the units in the controversial Trump SoHo in New York are under contract, according to a media report.

In June, 2008, Donald Trump, Jr. announced that 60 percent of the 391 units in the 46-story hotel-condo project had been sold, “largely to foreign buyers.” That figure was often repeated even as the market collapsed and skeptics scoffed at the idea of paying $1.2 million for a unit in the hotel-condo scheme, which restricts owners from using their unit for more than 120 days a year.

The news is the latest installment in the saga of Trump SoHo, which is scheduled to open April 9, after a long series of delays.

Trump Soho, the controversial New York condo-hotel, is definitely, absolutely, we-really-mean-it-this-time set to open in April.

A few months ago management indicated the oft-delayed tower would open in February, but that didn’t happen. Now those darn last minute kinks have been worked out and the hotel is officially set to open April 9, according to a press release.

The 46-story Trump Soho, which towers over most of the neighborhood, drew the ire of activists for using the condo-hotel concept to circumvent local zoning laws restricting apartment construction.

A lawsuit filed Monday by a group of buyers who lost their deposits in a Baja California resort charges Donald Trump and his executive children with fraud and negligence.

The seven plaintiffs say they were “duped” into buying hotel-condo units in the Trump Ocean Resort, a 526-unit, twin-tower project planned for 17 coastal acres a short drive south of the Mexican border. When the project collapsed in 2009, dozens of buyers lost their deposits, totaling more than $32 million.

Trump only licensed his name to the project's developer, Los Angeles-based Irongate. In the wake of the project’s demise, Irongate said there was no money to return—the deposit money was used to fund early development in the project, which was allowed by its contracts, the company said.

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.

Trump Soho

Even by New York City and Donald Trump standards, the 319-unit Trump Soho has been controversial.

From the start, neighborhood groups waged all out war against the project, arguing the 46-story tower was out of proportion with the low-rise area. Even worse, the plan violated zoning laws restricting new residential towers, they argued.

But Trump Soho, which is officially set to open in Feb. 1, was strictly defined as a “hotel-condo” for “transient occupancy” only, with owners forbidden from using the units for more than 120 days a year. Apartments ranging from 442 to 905 square feet, which were going for $1.2 million in the glory days, have limited storage space, no mailboxes and no kitchens, to discourage users from hanging out too long.

Las Vegas CityCenter

Get this: Donald Trump, the king of gold bathtubs, is criticizing a rival project as too expensive and over the top.

The Donald’s target is CityCenter, the massive project on the Las Vegas Strip often referred to as the largest commercial project in the United States. Co-developed by MGM Mirage and Dubai World, the troubled Dubai conglomerate, the 67-acre CityCenter includes five towers designed by star architects Daniel Libeskind, Pelli Clarke, Helmut Jahn, Kohn Pedersen Fox and Rafael Vinoly, with more than 2,000 condo units.

In an interview with Larry King, Trump called the project “an absolute catastrophe." The next day, in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Trump said, “The biggest problem is it costs so much. It cost billions more than anticipated and it's going to be hard to recover from that."

Headlines from the world of property:

Scotland: Locals Take a Shot at Trump Golf Resort Plan

The controversial Scottish project is going forward over objections of local holdouts. (Financial Times)

NYC Politician Leads West Bank Homebuying Junket

The trip is focusing on new developments in the territory. (Falafel Media)

Cosmopolitan Vegas Condo Owners Were Misled, Suit Alleges

Deutsche Bank has taken over the troubled resort and casino. (Bloomberg)

In an interview with CityscapeConnect, Donald Trump, Jr., the executive v.p. of development and acquisition for his father’s company, wanted to make it clear he’s “not necessarily the spoiled brat that many people would love to envision me as.”

Once he cleared that up, Heir Trump focused on business and he wasn’t painting the same rosy pictures favored by his perpetually cheerleading father.

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.