(This story, in slightly different form, originally appeared in Incisive Media's Daily Business Review.)

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL-Buyers suing celebrity real estate investor Donald Trump and developers of the local Trump International Hotel & Resort won't be getting any help from state condominium regulators. Attorney Joseph Altschul last month asked the state Division of Land Sales, Condominiums and Mobile Homes to investigate alleged bad-faith dealings by the hotel's developers.

But the division's Bureau of Compliance chief Jonathan Peet said in a letter last week to Altschul that state regulators only oversee residential condominiums. Unless the units are private temporary or permanent residences, they aren't considered residential units, Peet said. He did not address what agency would otherwise regulate condo-hotels.

Peet's letter comes after Trump International buyers were told they had to close on their unit purchases by the end of May. If at least 50% of the 298 units didn't close, the hotel wouldn't open, and if the hotel didn't open the condo units couldn't be occupied, a representative of developer SB Hotel Associates wrote buyers.

Recommended For You

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.

Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.