Hotel-condominium tower in New York City filed suit against developer Donald Trump and others involved for inflating sales figures to entice them to buy units, several media outlets reporting.   Previous reports said that sales of the 391 residential units in the 46-story, condo-hotel tower were slow – even though the project had been announced on an episode of Donald Trump’s television show, “The Apprentice.”  The lawsuit says that 15 plaintiffs claim that when they signed contracts to buy units, they were falsely told that Trump SoHo’s residential units were “30, 40, 50, 60 percent or more sold,” Bloomberg reports. But later, the building’s backers disclosed that only about 15% of the units had been sold, the story says, citing court documents.

The buyers “never would have signed contracts if they knew only 10 percent of the units were sold, instead of the 50 or 60 percent they were told,” William Geller, a lawyer who’s representing the buyers, told the New York Times.   The buyers accuse the defendants of engaging “in a coordinated pattern of falsely overstating the number and percentage of Trump SoHo units sold,” the story says.  An e-mail message that Bloomberg sent to Rhona Graff, a spokeswoman for Trump, wasn’t immediately returned.

The 46-story building is the latest example of the fallout in hotel-condos, which were popular with developers during the heyday of easy credit. The development was announced on an episode of Donald Trump’s television show, “The Apprentice.”   Developers sought to sell the units —- with prices starting at $1.2 million for a studio —- to investors who would be allowed to stay in them up to 120 days a year, according to the report. The rest of the time, the units could be sold as hotel rooms under the Trump brand.

Bank of America recently dumped a loan on the project for a fraction of its $75 million value and the developer is in restructuring talks with other lenders, according to the Journal.  Trump is not a direct investor in the project, but has a hotel-management deal and licensing arrangement with the developers.  Other condo-hotels bearing his name have also been in trouble. The Trump International Hotel & Tower in Fort Lauderdale, faces foreclosure, the Journal says.  About 70% of the buyers of the units at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Las Vegas didn’t close on their deals, and the developer was in restructuring talks with creditors last year.  For full report on both stories click here…