Very few business announcements in Tampa Bay have generated the media frenzy that occurred when The Donald agreed to put his name on a downtown Tampa condo high-rise. After the initial blush of excitement and a groundbreaking in March 2006, it’s been pretty much downhill. We don’t have space for the gory details, but suffice to say that cost overruns, soil problems at the site, unpaid contractors and other bugaboos have plagued the project. In late May, Trump demanded his name be removed. He sued developers for unpaid license fees to the tune of $1 million. A note that appeared earlier this month on the project’s website, trumptowertampa.com, added to the uncertainty: “Should we be denied financing, our efforts will immediately shift towards returning buyer deposits.” But we’ve got a suggestion: Call the building Creative Loafing Tower. We can’t put up the money, but we thought the name had a nice ring to it, now that we’re becoming a media empire and all.
This article appears in Sep 12-18, 2007.