Trump on hand to mark completion of hotel floors
May 23rd, 2007 - Category: Hotel, Real EstateDonald Trump will be in town Thursday to mark completion of the hotel portion, up to the 29th floor, of the 92-story, $850 million Trump International Hotel & Tower overlooking the Chicago River.
The hotel is scheduled to open in December.
Trump will also be trying to generate sales of residential units in the building. Usually, a developer makes its profit on the last 25 percent of unit sales.
So far, the developer has sold 223 of its 339 hotel condominiums priced at an average $1,325 per square foot and 378 of its 486 residential condominiums at an average price of $1,093 per square foot, said Tere Proctor, Trump’s Chicago sales director.
However, sales have been slow. In January, Trump had sold 220 hotel units and 373 residential condominiums, Proctor said at the time.
Trump recently decided to add more hotel and residential condominiums by dividing some of the larger, three-bedroom units, Proctor said.
“This better meets the needs of our buyers for whom this is often a second or third home,” she said.
FREED TO BUY FACTORY SITE: Joseph Freed & Associates LLC of Palatine plans to buy the 40-acre former Gates Rubber factory site near downtown Denver from Cherokee Investment Partners, said Steven Jacobsen, managing director at Joseph Freed.
The sale is expected to close by the end of the year.
But Raleigh, N.C.-based Cherokee Investment must first clean up contamination from decades of making tires.
“After they remediate the site, we’ll buy the land and develop the entire project,” Jacobsen said.
He declined to give the sale price and would not estimate the project’s total development cost.
Called Metropolitan Gardens, the project calls for at least 1 million square feet of retail, 2,300 rental apartments and for-sale condominiums, 500,000 square feet of offices, two hotels, a 2.5-acre public park and infrastructure for a rapid-transit station.
The retail and entertainment section will feature a six-screen Sundance Cinema.
“It’s a terrific community for Sundance to join,” Robert Redford, actor and Sundance president, said in a statement.
BREAKING GROUND ON BUSINESS PARK: Duke Realty Corp. has started construction of a $30 million office building at the mixed-use Cantera Business Park in Warrenville, said Duke Senior Vice President Steven Schnur.
Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. of Boston will occupy the four-story, 148,000-square-foot building.
GARVEY’S GROWS: Big-box office suppliers aren’t the only ones growing. By July, family-owned Garvey’s Office Products Inc. will triple its space by moving into an 86,000-square-foot building in Niles.
Information from: www.chicagotribune.com
