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Get Four
|  | OCTOBER 6, 2004
By Jessi Hempel When "the Trump Factor" Isn't Enough The tycoon's multimillion-dollar condos are moving slowly. How to turn up the juice? For the Donald, that means party time On Oct. 4, Donald Trump threw a party in the 29th-floor penthouse at Manhattan's 502 Park Ave. The prewar building, which once housed the Hotel Delmonico, now carries a new moniker: Trump Park Avenue. Scores of luxury condo brokers clad in designer suits sampled steak skewers and seared tuna while taking in the custom Italian doorknobs, oak parquet floors, and coiffured ceilings that mark the 11 newly finished floor-through penthouses. At 4,164 square feet, the penthouse where the party was held is the smallest of Trump's newest midtown offerings, which are priced from $12 million to $30 million. The monthly condo fee alone runs $4,300. When the 30th floor sold earlier this year -- to Trump's good friends Carol and Stewart Rahr -- it commanded $12,982,688, or $3,118 per square foot. "I DON'T KNOW." Who, apart from Trump's pals, will likely snatch up the penthouses? Celebrities looking to keep low profiles, volunteered a Trump sales rep. Also, European corporate executives. People who already have several homes and want a city place, one broker told me. Another was more candid: "Honestly, I don't know," he says. "Why do you think he's having this party?" With a spate of penthouses being erected across midtown in other high-profile buildings such as 1 Central Park West, owned by AOL Time Warner (TWX ), it's hard to imagine enough billionaires and millionaires are around to buy them. Since May, 2003, when the Trump condos went on the market, only 3 of the 11 penthouses have sold. Yet the marketing must go on. Shortly after 6:30 p.m., The Donald himself strolled off the express penthouse elevator into the airy gallery, followed by an entourage of well-wishers. He circled through the mirrored kitchen and sidled up to the dining-room wine bar. With an acquired humility, he thanked the Rahrs, who were on hand with ear-to-ear smiles. He thanked his financier, whose son, Trump announced with great respect, had just finished military service in Iraq. EXPLAINING ALLURE. He then thanked architect Costas Kondylis for maintaining the building's classic prewar finishes throughout while simultaneously adding the hallmark Trump glitz. He even thanked the architect's daughter, a tall blue-eyed woman named Alexia, for designing the halls. "The halls!" he said, "the magnificent halls!" Last, he thanked Corcoran Group Senior Vice-President Linda Stillwell for coining the evening's term: The Trump Factor. The Trump Factor, according to Stillwell, explains why Trump Park Avenue's 30th-floor penthouse commanded the top close price in Manhattan for the first half of 2004. (2003's top close price -- for a penthouse in the new AOL Time Warner building -- was triple that at $44 million.) It explains why Trump sales reps walk an average of 30 prospective buyers per week through the posh penthouses -- from older tycoons who made their cash in oil to youngster rock stars who just came into their fortunes weeks earlier. That's also why so many people made it out for the evening to check out the "his" and "hers" bathrooms in the master suite and take home an autographed copy of Trump's notable tome: Trump: How to Get Rich. Building sales rep Leslie Wilson says many of the evening's guests weren't even brokers. They just came by to come by. Says Wilson: "People like a party." MICROMANAGER. But, like any good game of smoke and mirrors, the true measures of Trump's success are hard to pin down. Just last week, the tycoon revealed that talks with a New York private-equity fund over a possible cash infusion into his floundering casino business had ended. It's possible that bondholders could force the casino into bankruptcy. A day later, Estee Lauder claimed a new scent for men -- Donald Trump, the Fragrance. Such is the life of The Donald -- glam, glitz, and packaging so fancy it's impossible to call individual wins and losses for what they are. Wilson, a charismatic blond in an orange cable sweater and a brocade belt designed by her sister, has worked for Trump for the past two years. She believes the Trump Factor boils down to quality and security. People like to buy Trump because they know what they're getting, she says. On the occasions when Trump came by to check out the building, Wilson says he was a real micromanager. If he happened to go out on the construction floor and noticed a door knob that wasn't exquisite, he would demand that it be changed on the spot. LOTS OF HISTORY. Attention to detail is part of the building's allure. So, though, is its famous history: During prohibition, the hotel played host to a speakeasy. Throughout the middle of the century, says Wilson, the lobby was prime territory for star sightings. The Beatles allegedly once held a press conference there. And on episode seven of The Apprentice, Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, whom audiences despised, was hit on the head by a piece of falling plaster while working on-site. Beauty, history, this address has it all. Now it just needs a few good buyers.  Hempel is a BusinessWeek staff editor in New York Edited by Beth Belton
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