Trump Panama Hotel Press Conference Update February 2011
Trump Panama week in February 2011
The hotel in Trump Panama will be open in less than four months and from our insider tour with Ivanka and Eric Trump, Panama Equity has got all the info that Panama’s other real estate agents are searching for!
The last week of February saw two of Donald Trump’s children in Panama City, Panama for the first press conference held in the Trump Ocean Club hotel lobby. Ivanka & Eric Trump, along with Jim Petrus, CEO of the Trump Hotel Collection, were all in town on the 23rd of February to hold a press conference in the Trump Panama Hotel. This was the first time they had all been to Panama at the same time, and spoke publicly regarding the phenomenal success of Trump Panama project. The Trump Ocean club, which includes almost 400 hotel rooms, is by it’s sheer size the Trump Organizations largest undertaking and coincidentally Trump’s first 5-Star property located outside of North America.
The developers are looking to match the success of their New York and Chicago locations, both of which were recently ranked in top ten lists from the Conde Nast and Travel+Leisure publications.
After slight delays in the projected opening of the Hotel, The Trumps are confident in their opening date of July 1st, and have recently begun taking reservations for the month of July and August of this year.
Insiders View of Trump Ocean Club
Panama Equity was attending the press conference, and here’s how it went:
At 9:30am, we were all welcomed in by the Trump Panama team of well dressed concierge staff on the first floor lobby, which featured an impressive two story design complete with tropical landscaping, glitzy tiles, and one massive column separating the elevator bank from the front desk. From there, we were ushered in to one of 8 elevators and up to the 15th floor sky lobby. During the conference, the Trump Panama team explained the Trump Ocean Club concept, which will be a unique offering to the Panamanian market. They touched on the private beach club, currently in construction on Isla Viveros in the Pearl Islands, as well as the myriad of services that will be offered under the Trump name.
After the press conference, we were led on a tour which included the additional lobbies for both the residences and the hotel. Shortly thereafter, we stopped at the crème de la crème of the project: the Trump Panama social area. Five swimming pools, including two infinity pools overlooking the sea along with an open restaurant space and what looked to be an entrance to one of the two gyms within the facility. One area we were not allowed to travel through was the casino and retail area because of the construction activity.
A few observations: I liked what we were shown. The hotel rooms look nice, almost all of them have balconies with ocean views, and the finish quality is definitely leaps above 95% of the hotels here in Panama. Trump’s plan is to enter the market at a 25% premium which at the time of publication is right around $350.00/night. If everything turns out exactly as planned, Trump will be the nicest hotel in Panama and can charge that kind of premium and still see occupancy in the high 70 percent range. The only catch is going to be if their human resource department can manage to snap up the best of the best in local talent. Service and service alone will keep Trump’s nightly rate high.
Though many questions pertaining to the building have still gone unanswered, as they are still nearly 4 months from delivery, today’s event certainly proved how heavily involved TRUMP is in this building’s success. I fully expect the Trump Ocean Club and Hotel, once completed, to be an icon for Latin America and one of Panama’s most visited tourist destinations.