Donald Trump’s new luxury hotel-condominiums on Mexico’s booming Baja California coast registered about $122 million in sales Friday, potentially heralding a resurgent development boom along the Pacific shoreline, just south of the U.S. border.
The Donald did not show for the one-day sales event at a plush San Diego hotel, but his persona loomed large in the ballroom, where would-be buyers nibbled on biscotti and sipped espresso as they waited to make their bids and celebrated over sirloin tip and fish tacos after clinching the deal.
Construction of the $200 million-plus Trump Ocean Resort Baja Mexico is expected to begin by the end of March, with the first of three towers to be completed by the end of 2008, according to Irongate, a Los Angeles real-estate investment firm and Trump’s partner on the project. Prices range from the mid-$200,000s to more than $1 million.
A giant screen in the ballroom showed that 188 of the first tower’s 232 units - worth about $46 million - were spoken for by noon, including five of six penthouses in the 27-story building. Names were called one by one, with each person given only a few minutes to decide. The screen displayed the names of four people next in line.
Buyers in the predominantly Southern Californian crowd said Trump’s involvement eased concerns about owning land in a foreign country. They were undeterred by spiraling violence in the border city of Tijuana, and they paid no heed to protesters outside the hotel who said Trump’s property was on one of the most polluted beaches in North America, a charge the developer emphatically denied.
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