Trump Tower in Vegas gets into the time-share game

Donald Trump’s gold-colored high-rise near the Las Vegas Strip will no longer be just a condo/hotel tower: It’s now a condo/hotel/timeshare tower.

The Trump Organization announced Thursday that it sold roughly 300 condominium units in Trump International Hotel Las Vegas to Hilton Worldwide’s timeshare division, Hilton Grand Vacations. The sale price was not disclosed.

Hilton will use the units as timeshare accommodations starting next spring.

The McLean, Va.-based hotel chain will be responsible for selling the timeshare intervals, but the Trump Organization, which is based in New York, will still manage the building.

Including the Hilton deal, Trump tower has now sold more than 700 units. The average sales price at the building is in the high $500,000 range, said Eric Trump, executive vice president of development and acquisitions for his father’s namesake company.

Eric Trump said Hilton approached him about the deal that gobbled up roughly 30 percent of his available units. He said the bulk sale wasn’t something his company “needed” to do, but it “made a lot of sense.”

In a prepared statement, Hilton Grand Vacations President Mark Wang said the venture would “yield a remarkable new ownership opportunity at one of the most celebrated properties in Las Vegas.”

The 64-story tower, located on Fashion Show Drive near East Desert Inn Road, opened in March 2008. It’s encased in 24-karat gold glass and includes 1,232 suites and 50 penthouses. Prices start at $300,000 for a studio and climb to more than $3.5 million for the largest penthouse.

People who buy the units can live there full-time or part-time, or have Trump rent them out as hotel rooms.

Sales are said to be rising — albeit at reduced prices — at the tower, which opened amid the national economic meltdown.

The property has also had its share of legal problems. About 300 investors who put down deposits in 2005 and 2006 sued in January 2011, alleging they were induced into buying the condo units at inflated prices. A federal judge rejected their claims last August.

(c)2012 the Las Vegas Sun (Las Vegas, Nev.). Distributed by MCT Information Services.