Trump apprentice may work here
Atlanta Business Chronicle - April 13, 2007by Jill Lerner FriedmanStaff Writer
Donald Trump's next apprentice may be coming to Atlanta.

The winner of Trump's reality show, set in Los Angeles this season, will be given the opportunity to oversee the $500 million-plus Trump Towers Atlanta.

The Atlanta project, at 15th and West Peachtree streets, will be one of two options, and has a high likelihood of being selected, according to a source familiar with the choices.

Trump and daughter Ivanka will be in Atlanta April 13 for a Trump Towers Atlanta broker event.

The appearance by father and daughter, along with the Atlanta tie-in to "The Apprentice," are sure to generate publicity for the development -- underscoring the importance of Trump Towers Atlanta to its namesake.

The reality show, now in its sixth season, follows 18 candidates as they vie to become Trump's "apprentice" and win the opportunity to work for the famed developer; each week, a contestant is "fired" from the competition.

Season one's winner, Bill Rancic, opted for the job of overseeing a 90-story Trump project in Chicago.

Several Atlantans have appeared as contestants.

While Ivanka and Don Jr. are leading the Atlanta project for their father's company, Trump said in a phone interview that he is a regular visitor to Atlanta and was not surprised when the U.S. Census Bureau announced earlier this month that Atlanta had added more residents than any other metro area from 2000 to 2006.

Atlanta absorbed about 890,000 residents during the period.

"I'm there quite a bit; it's an area I love," Trump said.

The population growth, he added, "was obvious to me."

The Trump Towers Atlanta preview office officially opens the weekend of April 14 and developers already have more than 1,000 names on a waiting list to buy units, according to Mark Randall, director of Atlanta-based Wood Partners LLC, which is joint-venturing with the New York-based Trump Organization and New York-based Dezer Properties Inc. to build Trump Towers Atlanta.

The preview office is located at Kenji Design Studios -- a design firm run by singer Kenny Rogers and his business partner Jim Weinberg -- which is consulting for Trump Towers Atlanta.

Randall said a survey of more than 600 people on the wait list indicated that a majority plan to live at the property rather than buy solely as an investment for re-sale.

Developers hope to begin construction on the first phase -- which will include more than 360 units -- in August. Expected completion is early 2010.

The second phase calls for 200 units.

R.J. Griffin & Co. in Atlanta is the general contractor for Trump Towers Atlanta and the architect is The Preston Partnership.

Dutch firm Global State Investments is the financial partner for the project and Merrill Lynch & Company Inc. is the lender.

Wood Partners and Dezer are in talks with Trump to partner on projects in Seattle and possibly Los Angeles as well.

Good news that 1000 people are on the waiting list....no so great news that they quote an August start, when the ABC reported a few weeks ago that it would break ground in June.

Impressive.

Pretty Impressive but not as impressed as I would've been. I wonder how I would've thought about it if I saw this before I saw the Mandarin post.

careful, markets might cut you for saying something - anything - negative about a developer. hehe

other than chicago, i can't really think of any other city where trump built a truly standout building. his new york developments are nice, but so is this - nice, but not amazing. i'd actually go as far as saying trump towers atlanta seem to be more attractive than most others out there; look at philly's or tampa's for example.

Alright -- my CrackBerry is on the fritz, and I am downright crotchety today! But a fresh pot of coffee has restored my mellow outlook. Apologies to cokezero and innocent bystanders for my irritability. Dammit.
:cool:

I agree with your assessment of Trump Towers Atlanta. There can only be one "best" -- and that one clearly is rising by the Chicago River -- but that doesn't mean that anything less can't still be very good. TTA is pretty damned nice, and will make a beautiful addition to the Midtown skyline. And I think the Mandarin renderings are beautiful. In general, unless a new tower is just plain butt-ugly, I'll tip my hat to the developer and hope he builds more...

Hey, until some actual dirt is moved and some concrete poured, TTA can still look any way it wants.

BY THE WAY... the website was updated with a VIRTUAL tour of the project.... in case
anyone is interested.

As strange as this may sound, does anyone think that there is a possability of a height increase for both towers seeing as how the sales may be way better than projected?

I sure hope so... after watching the virtual tour I was disappointed with how short the towers looked. I mean, I'm glad they're being built at all, but I was surprised by their relatively short appearance

I wouldn't mind a height increase, but it isn't necessary.

thats exactly what I was thinking.....i mean this is TRUMP...I'm way more excited by the Mandarin project than this one right now.

Remember though, it is just the Trump name, not actually his group doing the construction. I think it would be more eye catching if they were taller, and I guess it could happen but...

I don't think that the virtual tour is that accurate though. It shows the 4 Seasons towering over 1180 Peachtree and according to this site building diagram, 4 Seasons is shorter, plus someone posted eailer that the height for the 47 story tower was 576ft and 1280 West is only about 400ft. I don't know, I just hope it gets built!!!

The towers really do look wee. ...and ATLBlaxican, while I'm sure the tour wasn't exactly to scale all the time, you'd figure that they'd do as much as possible to make the two buildings in question pretty accurate.

I wish this would make more of a dent on the skyline and less of a dent at street level. That big ole fountain is kinda cool and certainly distinctive, but to me it's just one more impediment to a more pedestrian-friendly city.

Anyone watch the show last night? They had the Trump Atlanta as a choice, the winner went with the other one though, but it was still a very good plug for this project.

i hate donald trump, but congrads Atlanta...

I don't think it can happen. I asked Wood about the possibility of that and he said the two towers, as is, maxed out the zoning / FAR for the parcel.

Ah...perhaps the Mandarin project might influence the Trump Project to go a little higher???

So how tall will these towers be in feet? 500 feet?

I have a feeling they might do some adjustments before they start construction.

I hope it's the opposite of the BS (height reduction) they are pulling with Trump Tower Toronto.

If they really plan to start in June, then there won't be any design alterations. Anyone who knows anything at all about construction knows you can't just go changing things like the height of a building on a whim; any changes would necessarily delay this project for months. So many people here think real life is like SimCity...

LOL, gttx, you are so right. I thought Atlanta was SimCity though, we could just wish everything the way we want it and forget about economics and pretend reality doesn't exist.......

Darn, I'm living in the wrong city if that's not the case.....

I wasn't aware that the project was starting in June. Excuse me.

Correct me if i am wrong, but is this the aproximate location of Trump Atlanta?


http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z...uturetrump.jpg
This thread is getting stale

^^^ KSU, in that pic, trump towers would be immediately to the left of IBM/atlantic center (or, just north of atlantic center on west peachtree).

575 feet
 

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...um2236/575.jpg

tower one - 575' 10"
tower two - 470' 4"

I know groundbreaking is this month, but what day exactly is it set for?

It was supposed to be June 1....but that deadline was missed, apparently. There hasn't been too much news lately.

Typical Trump lack of progress on this project among others including: Tampa, Toronto, New Orleans, Denver, and others on an endless list with fates highly questionable...

^ Trump just franchises his name now to developers in the cities listed above and gets paid licensing fees from them I believe. Tampa's project is most likely dead now & Trump is suing the developers.

I have no doubt that the Atlanta one will happen.....it's just a matter of when. It's easy to get impatient with construction, but remember that we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars worth of labor and materials coming together - it doesn't happen over night. I check the site out every day for signs of life, but for now nothing is going on.

Thank you gttx. I get tired of hearing on the boards about missed ground breakings.....it's like these dates mentioned in the marketing materials are dates in stone. Until you are holding the construction schedule of the GC, you don't know the exact date for construction activities to begin. Futhermore, there is so much that takes place before a single piece of equipment is on the ground that is construction activity that the general public has no knowledge about. All they see is the actual building rising and assume that's construction...with no thought given to the enourmous amount of behind the scenes activity a project of this caliber requires.

That doesn't seem to be the case most of the time on the Minneapolis thread, there are several developments awaiting construction such as the Nicollet witch will be the 5th tallest in Minneapolis upon completion. People automatically assume that it is falling through since it hasn't started and has been delayed, people do forget how much planning and time it can take! I like the mentality on this forum, it is much more optimistic!!! :D

However, I just questioned the construction because I have seen several Trump frachised projects go nowhere for quite sometime now other than the Chicago and Las Vegas projects basically. I know that the Atlanta project will take off, I have a good feeling about it especially with the market being what it is there.

There's promotional signs on the site now. Nothing new, just an advertisement but seems like this project will be moving forward soon.

Regarding the Trump Towers development, does anybody know if 15th Street will connect W Peachtree St and Spring St? I don't think I've driven past 15th several times and missed the fact the street does not connect the two but I may be paying more attention to traffic. Also, unrelated to TT, will 13th connect the same streets soon or at some point?

15th St will be connected. No word on 13th.

In a Business Chronicle article Mark Randall of Wood Partners says that they have reached an '"internal hurdle" of 30% pre sales and they mention fall as the target for groundbreaking.

Great news! I can't wait to see these two go up as well as the Met Life properties right up the street. These will be great infill for the Midtown skyline.

Here's a pic of the model in the sales center:

http://cll.bizjournals.com/story_ima...00-0.jpg?rev=2

I can't wait to see this baby go up! :righton:

That is an intresting design. I do like those curves. Adds some nice views of it. It will be kewl watching it rise...

:yes:

Don't know if this rendering has been posted here.

http://hcp.4msol.com/project/images/1(1).jpg

At least they got the traffic going in the right direction.

Question?
Does anyone else get the feeling that the designers forgot to take traffic flow into consideration when they were putting the towers together? It seems like it would make more sense to have the Trump waterfall and grand entrance facing West Peachtree rather than Spring St. Well that's my 0.02 have a great day!

Now if we could just get the damned things built

An even better reason than the traffic flow is that West Peachtree Street just feels more like the "front door" than Spring Street. Given the probability that the new Symphony Hall will be built right across West Peachtree over the MARTA Arts Center Station, this location is looking better all the time. But these are shrewd people and I'm sure they are aware of this, so I doubt they're going to show their backside to West Peachtree.

They've started putting up a construction fence! :D

What do ya'll think are the chances of Hines redeveloping that parking deck across from the proposed towers? Looks like it was an "add-on" anyway and it seems to me, with Trump going in next door, the land would be much more valuable as anything but parking (hotel, office, mixed use, whatever). Across the street from Trump Towers... sounds like a good address to me.:yes:

I don't think there's much of a chance of Hines redeveloping the parking deck. For one thing, there are still plenty of other building lots available nearby. For another, the need for parking is strong and growing. In fact, that parking garage might be even more useful for after-hours parking if the new Symphony Hall gets built next door above the Arts Center MARTA Station (as I suspect it will).

I wonder if it would be practical to partially renovate the parking garage to add two floors of retail space along West Peachtree -- similar to what was done to the parking garage Downtown at the NW corner of Peachtree and International? That might kill two birds with one stone -- if it will work.

The Trump renderings show the bottom floors with a masonry facade....perhaps they're hoping for a retro-fitting as well...

Perhaps if all the lots in the area are all built up, and the demand for commerce and residential is still high for the area, they may reconsider building more underground parking.