PANAMA CITY-The Trump Ocean Club International Hotel & Tower Panama has been delayed again. Started in 2006 and originally slated to open in 2009, the 70-story building was set back to a late 2010 opening, and now has a July 6 debut date.
When complete, the 2.7-million-square-foot building will have a mix of 1,004 condos, including 369 hotel condos. At 951 feet tall, the building is the tallest in South America.
Jack Studnicky, head of sales for the tower, tells GlobeSt.com that the postponed openings can be blamed on the economic downturn. “We’ve just had construction overruns and delays, including with materials, it’s stuff that everyone has experienced.”
The building is about 87% sold, he said, which is more than the 80% sold in 2008 but less than the 90% reported in August 2010. Studnicky says the main point was getting to 85% sold, and since then developers Newland International Properties Corp. focused more on finishing the project than marketing the units. “It became a buyer’s market in 2009, and these buyers came in wanting a large discount, I think the developer decided to wait rather than take these sales,” he says.
That’s not to say there’s not some deals. Prices are still at 2008 levels, Studnicky says, around $400,000 for a studio condo and $1 million for a three-bedroom condo. “If someone came in now, they could likely get a 25% discount on those prices, that’s a deal I’m working on a unit right now. However, the developer could decide that’s not good enough,” he says.
The property will include a 60,000-square-foot casino, though an operator is yet to be named. Studnicky says Roger Khafif, a majority investor in Newland, just returned this past week from Las Vegas where he believes a deal was secured from a casino operator based there. “We should be able to announce a partnership by the end of this week,” Studnicky says.
Newland licensed the Trump name from Trump Marks Panama LLC. The company retained Trump Hotel Collection to manage the property.
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