Big developments on the Las Vegas Strip were recently announced: a giant hotel tower is going to be built! Construction on the 645-foot tall, $300 million, Trump International Hotel and Tower is expected to begin during the first quarter of 2005 and will front Fashion Show Drive between Las Vegas Boulevard and Industrial Road. The tower is to be built on 3.5 acres of vacant land and is directly across from the Nordstrom and Robinsons-May department stores at the Fashion Show mall. Construction is expected to take 18 to 24 months.

The latest plans call for a 1.6 million-square-foot tower that would house more than 1,000 condominium-hotel units ranging in size from 636 square feet to 1,057 square feet, with combinations of 1,693 square feet. Another 50 "residential homes" would range in size from 3,000 square feet to more than 10,000 square feet. Each use will have a separate lobby.

Joel Bergman, of Bergman, Walls & Associates, says, "We think we out-did ourselves." In a news release from the Trump organization, it says the tower will be patterned after the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Manhattan. It is described as a "645-foot tower, clad in 24k gold glass with sparkling white accents."

Plans for Trump International Las Vegas include a plaza deck where their will be a deluxe restaurant, a lounge, a workout facility and a really nifty boutique.

People can purchase units in a condo-hotel and can use them at-will and can opt to place the units in a rental pool that will rent out the units like a hotel when they are not in use by their owners. Some condo-hotels place limits on the amount of time owners can use the units. But Ruffin said that would not be the case with Trump International.