Trump woos UAE investors for hotel

The presidential suite in The Trump SoHo Hotel Condominium project in Manhattan's SoHo neighbourhood could rent for as much as Dh110,100 ($30,000).

Donald Trump said yesterday that he will sell five penthouses and the one presidential suite in the $800 million (Dh2.9 billion) Trump SoHo project exclusively to UAE investors.

The penthouses will cover an area of 800 square feet onwards, while the presidential suite will be 2,000 sq ft.

"We expect to sell the penthouses from $4m onwards, with the presidential suite for not less than $15 m," Marcella Reyes, Senior Sales Executive for Prodigy International told Emirates Business.

Besides offering a 360-degree view of Manhattan city, the suite is fully furnished by Fendi Casa, comes with a personal butler and 24/7 Bentley car service.

Although 50 per cent of The Trump SoHo project has been sold, Middle Eastern investors have not yet been active in buying the project.

Apart from penthouse and presidential suite, Trump Soho will have 400 hotel condominium units, of which 141 are deluxe suites and 253 studio suites.

Prodigy is the exclusive sales and marketing organisation for Trump SoHo.

Middle East investors have been buying chunks of Manhattan's skyline as the dollar plummets and Wall Street loses its appeal.

In recent years Middle Eastern investors have already taken hold of a number of landmark New York buildings. In 2005 and 2006 the region was responsible for more property investment in New York than European sources of cash, Jones Lang LaSalle said.

Nakheel, the property investment arm of Dubai World, took a 73 per cent stake in the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Columbus Circle, overlooking Central Park, in the middle of last year in a deal worth $248m.

It also owns more than 90 per cent of the trendy and fashionable W Hotel Union Square, which it bought in October 2006 for $285m.

Last week, Nakheel Chief Executive Chris O'Donnell said it expects to sell a penthouse in the Trump International Hotel and Tower on Palm Jumeirah for more than $30m. Investcorp and Broadway Partners bought 280 Park Avenue from Istithmar in January of this year for about $1.28bn.

According to media reports, the Abu Dhabi Investment Council in talks with a subsidiary of Prudential Financial to buy the famed Chrysler Building.

This article has been edited since it was published in Emirates Business on 30 June.

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