Trump SoHo

Days after Donald Trump sued his lenders to extend a massive construction loan for his unfinished Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago (on account of the "unprecedented financial crisis"), the big-haired billionaire has a little good real estate news to brighten his week. According to a press release, his Trump SoHo has "completed its final construction pour," which means the 46-story, 449-foot-tall glass monolith has been topped off.

A slightly misspelled press release quotes Mr. Trump saying, "We are thrilled that Trump SoHo has topped off. As the area’s tallest building, it has unparalled [sic] panoramic views of the New York City skyline including the Hudson River, Statue of Liberty, and Empire State Building."  read more »

Greenwich Village may be notoriously prickly about new development, but will Donald Trump's provocations never end?

Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and ardent Trump SoHo opponent, has just sent out a plea for like-minded activists to inundate the City Planning Commission with requests to "change the zoning for this area to prevent more out-of-scale development like Trump SoHo 'Condo-Hotel.'''

The catalyst for this most recent burst of outrage?

According to Mr. Berman:

"Last week it was revealed that the Department of Buildings (DOB) approved an additional, 43rd floor for the 454 ft. tall Trump SoHo 'Condo-Hotel.' However, a review by GVSHP of DOB's records shows that the developer has recently submitted permit applications referring to a 44th floor, one floor even higher than DOB already approved.

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There's an excellent profile of Trump SoHo in this week's New York magazine--which happens to come awfully close to suggesting that the building is seriously tied to mob money. But its most swaggering and cold-hearted quote doesn't come from Mr. Trump himself! "We don’t want airline hostesses here," says neighborhood activist Sean Sweeney, the director of SoHo Alliance, explaining his opposition to the building, "or people coming from Europe or Asia for a couple of weeks."

Then there's this mean zinger: "Who was the first buyer in that building—a Croatian-Swedish soccer player?" (It's Inter Milan star Zlatan Ibrahimović, a Swede born to Bosnian parents). "Trump represents everything we hate. Bad taste. Déclassé. He’s uptown, we’re downtown, and never the two shall meet," Mr. Sweeney says.  read more »

Donald Trump shares how he won the battle to build the Trump SoHo condo-hotel at Varick and Spring streets in his new book, Trump Never Give Up: How I Turned My Biggest Challenges Into Success (out about six weeks ago from Wiley).

Mr. Trump recounts how he marched against a rabble-rousing minority:  read more »

The blogs are buzzing with news that the construction of the lower floors of Trump SoHo resumed this morning for the first time since worker Yurly Vanschytskyy died and two others were seriously injured in a tragic accident last month.

The Department of Buildings gave the general contractor Bovis Lend Lease clearance to continue work on the first 23 floors, but held off on authorizing concrete or crane usage. Bovis has boosted safety measures at the site and hired a manager to oversee the rest of construction.

Just as one would expect from New York’s iconic (and notoriously immodest) New York developer, the Trump Organization issued a press release Thursday about banner condo sales at the remarkably resilient residential-hotel tower on Spring and Varick.  read more »

It's barely two months into 2008, and the Trump SoHo condo-hotel on Spring and Varick streets has already weathered a fair share of obstacles and still managed to sell over half the units. First, one of Donald Trump's development partners was implicated in some shady financial dealings. Then construction worker Yuriy Vanchytskyy died in a tragic accident at the building site only a month after opponents of the 44-story tower had railed against the pace of construction.  read more »

Testifying before the City Council earlier today, Department of Buildings commissioner Patricia Lancaster called for new regulations on general contractors and concrete contractors, responding to the cacophony of criticism that followed a fatal accident at the Trump SoHo.

Her recommendations include making general contractors and concrete contractors register with the city in order to do business in the five boroughs, and requiring that concrete contracts have a safety manager for high-rise construction, according to prepared testimony.

Also of note: 2007 saw 12 fatalities and 128 injuries on construction sites, compared with 18 fatalities and 116 injuries in 2006.  read more »