It glitters in gold—inside and out! It shimmers in silence without slot machines and smoking! It’s Vegas deluxe—and billionaire real-estate developer Donald Trump has imported a little of his carved Manhattan skyline to the Vegas strip.

Instead of “spy in the sky cameras” there are ornate chandeliers. Instead of blackjack or craps tables there are columns and counters of rich Italian marble—and every feature and fixture in the 64-story resort is gold trimmed! Donald must have made a few runs on the Fort Knox bank! He shelled out $1.2 billion to build the tower and its 1,282 suites. He broke ground on July 12, 2005 and completed construction four months ahead of schedule. From groundbreaking to move in, the monumental masterpiece ran 32-months start to finish! He plans a second 64-story tower when the shaken real-estate market corrects in about a year.

First residents and guests—including some secretive headline VIP’s—begin checking in this morning (MON) and Luxe Life won an official sneak preview. Donald, daughter Ivanka and son Donald Jr. have been hands on throughout the construction and interior decorating—and they will be here April 11 for an 11 a.m. red-ribbon cutting flanked by all 51 contestants in the Miss USA pageant that he owns!

The gorgeous grandeur begins in the strikingly spacious lobby that’s large enough for a Superbowl match-up game. The two-sided lobby bar complete with its own bar menu will be open daily until 2 a.m. and is set to become a power-elite hangout. There are 25 barstools on each side along with two restaurants—one a 65-seat formal culinary wonder and another that’s an informal casual dining scene. Trump’s personal chef from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Joe Isdidori is running the new food palaces. Be sure to order Mr. Trump’s Bibb wedge salad and Mr. Trump’s steak fries with truffle mayo from the menu! I love the look of the H2Eau pool and its separate bistro up on the tower’s seventh floor complete with heated outdoor pool, sundeck and 1,500 square-foot sophisticated fitness center. It’s a staggering birds-eye view of the entire valley wind-blocked by the towers of The Venetian, Wynn and the new Encore.

Donald picked the bathtubs and linens personally for the suites and Ivanka shows her eye for detail and beauty and the neo-Japanese bistro cuisine. She personally designed the line of custom-designed uniforms for the staff right down to the white-gloved regal doormen and the restaurant servers! TV screens are even hidden as part of the glass mirror in the elegantly appointed bathrooms. Donald also personally insisted on the wet treatment rooms in the 10,000 square-foot superb spa facilities—certain to make you salivate. “It’s the highest level of luxury for any hotel in the world,” said the developer who confirmed nightly rentals of the combo condo and hotel start at $349 and move on up. “Some residents will live here using it as a second home and never renting out to guests. Some are investors who will use our rental program to offset their acquisitions,” Steve Shalit, its managing director told me. Harrah’s/Flamingo president, Don Marrandino is one of the first buyers to put his suite into the rental program for investment purposes.

This Vegas property joins the Trump International hotel towers in Manhattan and Chicago but will serve as the ultimate flagship of a new hotel empire stretching all the way to Scotland, Panama, Mexico and Dubai and closer home in Honolulu, Fort Lauderdale, New Orleans and Toronto. The New York hotel is one of only three hotels in America to have received a double Mobil Five-Star rating for both its hotel and restaurant and a Five-Star Diamond Award from the American Academy of Hospitality Science. It was named the No. 1 hotel in the USA by the prestigious Travel & Leisure and Conde Nast Traveler magazines. Donald promises his new Vegas property will be even better in elegance and excess than Manhattan!

Named “Developer of the Year” he’s also the only real-estate banker to have a star on the prestigious Hollywood Walk of Fame! In addition to appearing on The Apprentice reality show his Los Angeles based production company is also readying a new TV reality show transforming “troubled girls into elegant ladies”—and he’s already sent an invitation to former NY Governor Elliot Spitzer’s “call girl” headline maker to participate! Donald has also signed former Beatles wife, Heather McCartney Mills as one of the judges for his April 11 NBC live telecast for the Miss USA pageant here from the Planet Hollywood Resort.

“Vegas is a really exciting dynamic center,” Donald told me. “I wanted to make a big bold statement with my first project on the Strip. We’ve succeeded with Trump International Tower and I am very happy and proud of our accomplishment.”

I remember two decades ago standing with Donald at the top of his first luxury tower in Manhattan when he vowed to single-handedly re-carve the New York City skyline. With more than 25 massive skyscrapers and resort-casinos worldwide now he’s still not stopped building. As I stood in a three-bedroom top-floor super suite here at the weekend I looked down at the booming neighborhood construction: the $5 billion Echelon resort already rising from Boyd Gaming, the $3 billiion Fontainbleau Resort just across the Strip and the proposed $5 billion recreation of the New York Plaza Hotel that ironically Donald once owned. Once again “The Donald” sits right in the center of it all.

“This is my Vegas debut but by no means is it my last,” said Donald. “This will be the first of many for your city.”

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 9:55 am and is filed under Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.