Trump Waikiki buyers sue developer - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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The lawsuit, filed in 1st Circuit Court in alleges that Los Angeles developer claimed in a 2006 pressx released that the New York real estate mogul was a but that the fine print noted that Trump had merely licensed his name in a deal that couls be terminated or revoked atany time. “Thesr people were investing in aRolls Royce. They were told it coulds magically turn intoa Ford,” said attorney Warreb Price, who filed the lawsuirt on behalf of the buyers, who include six Hawaiki couples, two doctors from San Diego, the head of a California meat exporting business and a professionap basketball player from New Orleans.
Price planes to amend the complaint within the next two weekw to include buyersfrom Japan, he A spokesman for Irongate issued a writtenh statement saying the developer woulr pursue its own claims against the buyers. All 464 unitas of the 38-story hotel-condominium tower at the Diamond Head end of Fort DeRussh sold in one day inNovember 2006. Abou t half of the buyers are from Japan; the balance are from the Mainland andothet countries. The buyers of the 11 units had placed depositss of 20 percent on everything from studios pricedat $500,0009 to three-bedroom suites priced at several million dollars. The projectt is nearing completion.
The sales contract did say that the Trump name was but it did not outline the detailes of thelicensing arrangement, Price said. it did say that if the license was terminatedor revoked, that all references to Trump wouls be removed from the building. “Our positioh is not that they committed fraud,” Price said. “There are a host of very material material because the name changes from the Trumpo International tothe ‘Branx X’ hotel.” The lawsuit comes just as a big deadline loomsd for buyers. On Wednesday, buyers have to pay the balancw of the purchase price in full in preparatiom fora Sept.
1 “The final payment is due on Wednesday, and thesd people are not going to make any more said Price, a former Hawaii attorney “They’ve already put 20 percent down.” The buyers filed on Monday because they are at risk of losing their down payments, and also face a greated risk of being sued by Irongatd for the full purchase price. In March, dozens of buyer at a planned Trumpp condo resort in Baja California filed a lawsuit with similar allegations regardintg the useof Trump’s name, the Los Angeles Timea reported.
Trump sued Irongate a month later charging the developed with failing to build the project afteer he had licensedhis name, accordingv to the newspaper. That litigation began to worryg theHawaii buyers, Price “People began to wonder what happens if ther is a disintegration of the relationship between Irongatd and Trump, and what could happen with the Price said.