A Trump tower in Seattle? It could happen

Real-estate mogul and reality-TV star Donald Trump wants to add his moniker to the downtown Seattle skyline.

But is low-key, polite-to-a-fault Seattle ready for Trump, a tough-talking New Yorker who's popularly known for the TV phrase "You're fired" and for nasty public spats with celebrities like Rosie O'Donnell?

Ivanka Trump, his 25-year-old daughter and vice president of his real-estate company, says the answer is yes. In a phone interview Wednesday, she confirmed the Trump Organization is interested in finding a site in downtown Seattle for a hotel and residential condo tower.

She said it's too soon to say what the tower would look like or what it would be called — although you can bet it would carry The Donald's surname and his lavish style.

"We always do luxury," she said. "It would definitely be a five-star hotel, or if it's just condominiums, it would be the highest of the high end."

Trump has developed ornate hotels and condominiums in New York, and has projects under way in South Florida, Chicago and elsewhere.

Some wonder how well a Trump tower would go over in Seattle.

"The Trump brand has sort of this East Coast, gold-cuff-links aura," said David Yuan, an architect with NBBJ in Seattle. "I'll be interested to see how that plays out in Seattle with our history of being pretty practical.

"We wear galoshes and windbreakers," Yuan added. "That's not the Trump image."

Leslie Williams, president of the local condo-marketing firm that bears her name, said she has visited Trump high-rises in New York and praises the interiors as "gorgeous. He does a really nice job on the finishes.

"The lifestyle he offers probably will be more opulent than what we have here," she said. "It's going to appeal to some people, not to others."

A Trump-branded tower would compete with at least three hotel-and-condo projects planned for downtown over the next several years. Each promises luxury hotel accommodations and condos with panoramic views at jaw-dropping prices. Among them: the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences, where all condos cost more than $2,000 a square foot.

"We'd do better than that," Ivanka Trump said, echoing her father's brash demeanor. In a follow-up e-mail, she said, "We will build a better building."

Financier and large-scale land developer Spencer Alpert, who splits his time between Seattle and Dallas, is working with the Trump Organization to find a suitable location here.

She gets it

He first raised the possibility of a Trump expansion into the Northwest over lunch last fall in New York with Ivanka and her 29-year-old brother, Donald Jr. Shortly thereafter, Ivanka joined Alpert in Seattle for a two-hour driving tour.

Alpert said Ivanka gets Seattle.

"When we met, she had already walked around downtown and gone down to Pike Place Market," Alpert said. "She didn't have Birkenstocks on, but she had the Ivanka Trump equivalent. She looked like she fit in and felt very comfortable in Seattle."

Alpert said he hopes to find a site — preferably one with water and mountain views — in the next several months. If all goes well, the tower would open in late 2009, he said. "We've had discussions with different property owners and have a very good feeling."

The Trumps, whose interest in Seattle originally was reported in the Atlanta Business Chronicle, would develop the tower with Alpert and Atlanta-based Wood Partners.

Thinking green

Peter Truex, a commercial real-estate broker at Colliers International in Seattle who's working with Alpert, said the Trumps want to build a "Seattle project, not a New York project built in Seattle. It's going to be really special and different, and it will reflect their interest in green development" — environmentally sensitive development practices.

Added Ivanka Trump: "I think Seattle is a very young market, and green development is very important, as it should be. You build New York buildings in New York, Las Vegas buildings in Las Vegas, and Seattle buildings in Seattle."

Even so, she said, discussions about Seattle are still very preliminary. She already is working on more than two dozen projects worldwide.

"I'd love to find a great site," she said. "I think the name would do very well there."

Amy Martinez: 206-464-2923 or amartinez@seattletimes.com