Just four days before Hurricane Katrina struck, New York real estate developer Donald Trump announced his plans to build a 70-story tower in downtown New Orleans. Despite all the uncertainty that ensued, within two weeks, he promised the plan would go forward.Now, with the approval of the Planning Commission behind them, Donald Trump and a group of Florida developers are one step closer to making the tower a reality. The City Council still needs to sign off on the plan, but with no opposition to the project, that’s very likely.If all goes well, lead developer Cliff Mowe said they expect to break ground this summer with the project completed by the end of 2009. When completed, it will be the tallest building in New Orleans at 716 feet high. That puts it about 20 feet higher than the 51 floor One Shell Square building.

So what’s going to be inside this huge building?

Floors 1-2 will have restaurants, retail space and a public arcade.

Floors 3-15 would be used for parking.

Floor 17 would house the hotel lobby.

Floors 18-32 would be a condotel, which is the first time this concept has been used in New Orleans. The 435 units would be sold as condos but could be rented out like hotel rooms on a nightly basis, with the owners’ permission. Owners would then get a percentage of the room revenue and would still be able to use the rooms during the times they want to use them.

Floors 39-56 would be conventional 2-bedroom condos, while above them in floors 58 and above, would be larger condos including the penthouse units.

Reservations are currently being taken, and I can help you decide if one of these investments is right for you. The prices for the 2-bedroom condos are between $575-675 a square foot with the penthouse units going from $700-725 per square foot.

The price of the condos has stayed the same even thought the price of the project has gone up drastically due to rising construction costs in the area. From an initial estimate of $120 million, the building price is now near $400 million. While the financing has not been nailed down, Mowe says they have no fears of getting the financing they need because of the experience of the investors involved, including, of course, Donald Trump.

In keeping with a strange suspiciousness that has pervaded the building of large towers, there will be no 13th floor to the Trump Tower.

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