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Lagging Trump Tower gets cash

Faced with soil instability, elusive lenders and construction overruns, the developer sheds its Tampa office.

By JAMES THORNER
Published October 12, 2006

TAMPA - Needing millions of dollars to revive its stalled Trump Tower Tampa condominium project, developer SimDag LLC has sold off one of its chief assets: its headquarters building in downtown Tampa.

Tampa investment banker Robert Moreyra paid SimDag $6-million for the CapTrust Building at 102 W. Whiting St.

But in the deal that closed Aug. 18, SimDag reserved the right to repurchase the property within five years if its financial fortunes improve.

The sales price was $280,000 less than SimDag's partners paid for the six-story office building in 2003, according to the Hillsborough County Property Appraisers office.

Neither Moreyra, president of Atlantic American Capital Advisors, nor SimDag chief executive Frank Dagostino returned calls from the St. Petersburg Times.

The CapTrust Building is sandwiched between a city park to the north and the Trump Tower site to the south.

SimDag has spent nearly two years trying to launch Trump, a 52-story skyscraper that would be the tallest in west Florida.

The luxurious riverfront address at 111 S Ashley Drive would include 192 units costing about $700,000 to $6.2-million. SimDag acquired the name in a licensing deal with New York real estate tycoon Donald Trump.

Developers say they've collected nonrefundable deposits on 80 percent of the units, but construction on the building foundation has visibly slackened.

"When they broke ground two or three months ago, there were probably 30-plus people working on the site. Now some mornings I come out and the gates are locked," said Eric Bailey, an executive with CapTrust Financial Advisors, the company for which the recently sold office building is named.

Finding financing for what could be a landmark tower has proved elusive as lenders scurry from the slumping housing market.

Construction overruns, mostly for steel and concrete, forced SimDag to hit depositors up for millions of extra dollars last winter.

SimDag shed its general contractor, Turner Construction Co., in March and was slapped with a lien for failing to pay Turner $1.2-million.

And in August came word that soil instability would prolong installation of underground steel-and-concrete pilings on the 1.5-acre building site, pushing the grand opening date from 2008 to 2009.

In August the Trump Organization announced it would wield its clout in the lending community to help SimDag negotiate a $200-million construction loan for the tower.

Executives in Trump's New York offices could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

James Thorner can be reached at 813 226-3313 or thorner@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 11, 2006, 23:40:01]