Home on the Strip
By ROBERT JOHNSON
nytimes.com
LAS VEGAS - Even in this gaudy city a building painted black and pink stands out. It needs to, because the one-floor structure at the corner of the Strip and Sahara Avenue is a condominium sales center in a metropolis where more than 100 new high-rise residences are in the works.
The black-and-pink exterior was designed by the woman who is the namesake of the planned condominium. Victor Altomare, the developer, said simply, "It just screams 'Ivana.' " That would be Ivana Trump, an ex-wife of Donald J. Trump. "Her fingerprints are all over this project," Mr. Altomare said. "Pink is her color."
Although the condo itself, scheduled for groundbreaking in mid-2006 and opening 30 months later, will be a relatively sedate silver color, it will command attention as the tallest skyscraper in Las Vegas. Mr. Altomare estimates construction costs at $500 million. In a telephone interview, Mrs. Trump said she was an investor, but would not be specific about the amount.
The Ivana building "will be elegant," vowed Mrs. Trump, who divides most of her time among homes in New York, London and St.-Tropez. She has lines of clothing, cosmetics and jewelry that are sold on cable television shopping channels and over her Web site, IvanaTrump.com.
Ivana, the building, is to rise 80 floors. Its advertising slogan is "Size Does Matter," a phrase also used to promote the 1998 film "Godzilla," a big-budget production about the fire-breathing lizard that fizzled at the box office. In that movie, the monster destroyed much of Manhattan. In contrast, the Ivana tower and other high rises under development are being hailed as the "Manhattanization" of Las Vegas.
Konnel Peterson, a Re/Max broker who sells mainly condos, said: "Condos, not casinos, are the next big wave of building here. If successful, they'll remake the skyline of this city and recast the Strip from a place to gamble on games to a hub of real estate investment."
The Las Vegas condo market is heating up fast. Some 6,000 units are under construction, compared with about 300 in early 2004, according to Gunther Gedsl, a high-rise analyst at Manhattanization.com in Las Vegas. Another 12,500 units are in the preconstruction sales phase, he said, versus 4,000 as 2004 began.
All that activity, however, is taking its toll on the optimism among some developers. Mr. Gedsl estimated that 12,000 condo units had entered the "idea stage" within the last 18 months. But he added that there had been some erosion in the number of condos in the pipeline "as costs and competition have increased."
How close is Las Vegas to a condo glut? Mr. Gedsl said the glut might already exist. "I think at least 20 percent of those we're hearing about now won't be built," he said.
Mr. Altomare said he had to persuade Mrs. Trump to lend her name to the tower. "She said no, unless it has the right size and scope." He added, "One appeal for her in Las Vegas is to succeed in a 'guy's town.' "
Certainly the size and scope of Ivana, the building, are big enough to compete with one guy in particular: the man she divorced in 1990 after 13 years of marriage.
Mr. Trump, not known for self-deprecation, also has a condo project being built on the Strip. But, planned for 64 floors, his Trump International Hotel and Tower will be smaller than the one named for Mrs. Trump. Still, he swept aside comparisons in a telephone interview.
"Trump International has the right location in the heart of Las Vegas Boulevard," he said, referring to the street more commonly known as the Strip, "near Steve Wynn's new resort and all the glamour that buyers are looking for."
Mr. Trump said that Ivana, the building, may be too far north on the Strip, near the older downtown area of Las Vegas, to be successful. "It's in the wrong place," he said. His development has as a neighbor the Fashion Show Mall, with such stores as Neiman-Marcus. Hers is across the street from a discount store that offers bargains on T-shirts.
Ivana's prices range from $550,000 to a penthouse listed at $35 million. Trump International's units are $800,000 to $8 million.
"Trump International is sold out," Mr. Trump said. "We have 10 percent deposits on all 1,268 units." He added that if some buyers drop out, "We have a long waiting list of people who want to get in."
While the sales center at Ivana is bustling, and Mr. Altomare showed a stack of deposit checks to a visitor, they are for a modest $10,000 each, rather than the 10 percent of the sales price that Mr. Trump said he was receiving in advance.
Still, the Ivana condo was nearly 50 percent sold even before marketing fully started last Sunday with a party attended by Mrs. Trump at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, five miles south of her sales center.
Among those attending the gala was Alyssa Lampert Thomas, a Los Angeles mortgage consultant, who has made a deposit. "This is my first time in Las Vegas," she said, "and I'm really excited about owning a part of a building that Ivana Trump is involved with. She is helping with the design of the interiors, and she has exquisite taste."
One promotion for the building exhibits a certain earthy quality. A press release on July 31 proclaimed, "The Ivana standard of procuring 'only the best' is even reflected in the men that will actually build Ivana Las Vegas."
The announcement invited the wives, girlfriends and sisters of construction workers to submit "your sexiest construction photo" to www.ivanalasvegas.com, in a contest to pick the 12 "hottest construction men in America." They will be featured on a calendar for the tower.
While she was married to Donald Trump, Mrs. Trump was named vice president for interior design of his buildings, including Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, where she supervised construction and later managed the property. She also did a four-year stint as president and chief executive of another Trump property, the Plaza Hotel in New York.
In recent years she has been involved in real estate as a spokeswoman for condo projects in Australia and Miami, but the Las Vegas building is the first to bear her name. "She is definitely a brand, an icon known all over the world," Mr. Altomare said.
Yet brand names have sometimes not been enough in the Las Vegas condo market, where plans for a 46-story building backed by the basketball legend Michael Jordan were scrapped this year in part because of higher-than-expected construction costs.
And, Mr. Trump said, "I'm afraid she is just being used by people who want her name to get something built."
Mrs. Trump had this to say: "I'm glad that Donald is concerned. We're still family even though we're divorced. No one is using me for anything. I'm not the type of person who gets used." |
