Sometimes you just have to meet a struggling market halfway. And for Jules Trump, that means forgoing a second condo tower. For now.
The Trump Group's Jules called us from Israel to confirm that he has shelved plans for a second tower at The Estates at Acqualina project in Sunny Isles. With 85 pre-sales under his belt, Jules now has to secure 120 for Trump to finally move toward obtaining construction financing.
“The whole Miami market at the high end is slow, considerably,” Jules says, adding the usual standby buyers from Brazil, Canada and Russia have petered out as oil prices have dropped and the dollar strengthened. He even lost an unrevealed number of reservations—those potential buyers who put 10% down on a unit, but got a full refund when they declined to buy.
So for now, Jules will pursue a 51-story, 150-unit tower, with the second, smaller, 92-unit project to be packed away until better times return. But it's not that the buyers aren't getting something in return.
Jules says each are getting more SF per unit. When asked if he believes he may need to even shelve the first tower, Jules says no way.
“Look, I got a helluva lot of sales toward doing the first tower," Jules says. "So I think that's unlikely.”
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