Trump Considers
Building Tower in Seattle
Real-estate mogul and reality-TV star Donald Trump
is reportedly considering adding one of his trademark
towers to the downtown Seattle skyline.
According
to Ivanka Trump, his 25-year-old daughter and vice
president of his real-estate company, the Trump
Organization is interested in finding a site in
downtown Seattle to develop an upscale hotel and
residential condo tower.
"We always do luxury," she said. "It
would definitely be a five-star hotel or condo hotel,
or if it's just condominiums, it would be the highest
of the high end."
Trump
has developed lavish hotels and condominiums in
New York, and has projects under way in South Florida,
Chicago, Las Vegas and elsewhere.
Some wonder how well a Trump tower would go over
in Seattle.
"The
lifestyle he offers probably will be more opulent
than what we have here," said one local realtor.
A
Trump-branded tower in Seattle would compete with
at least three hotel-and-condo projects planned
for downtown over the next several years. Each will
offer luxury hotel accommodations and condos with
grand views and price tags to match. Among them:
the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences, where prices
on the condos average more than $2,000 per square
foot.
Financier
and large-scale land developer Spencer Alpert of
Seattle is working with the Trump Organization to
find a optimum location.
Alpert
said the best site will offer water and mountain
views. If all goes well, the tower would open as
soon as late 2009, he said.
The
Trumps say they would develop the tower with Alpert
and Atlanta-based Wood Partners.
Peter
Truex, a commercial real-estate broker at Colliers
International in Seattle who's working with Alpert,
said the Trumps want to build a "Seattle project,
not a New York project built in Seattle. It's going
to be really special and different, and it will
reflect their interest in green development,"
referring to environmentally- sensitive development
practices.
Discussions
about Seattle are still preliminary, according to
Trump insiders, and the firm is working on more
than two dozen projects worldwide. But they stress
that Seattle is definitely in the Trumps' thinking.