Trump Taj Mahal Slates New 1,250-Key Tower

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ-Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts doesn’t have that anticipated $400 million in cash in its back pocket just yet, but officials of the ailing company are already planning on how to spend it. Company officials have unveiled a plan to dramatically expand their flagship, Trump Taj Mahal, and to launch makeovers of all three of their properties here.

The $400 million, of course, is the cash infusion that would come from a Credit Suisse First Boston’s DLJ Merchant Banking Partners III, a private equity fund, announced recently as part of a plan to take the ailing casino/hotel operator into and then out of a bankruptcy restructuring. The plan is to reduce Trump’s $1.8-billion debt load and give it some cash to upgrade its properties here. The agreement, as reported, will also turn Donald Trump from CEO and majority owner into chairman and minority shareholder of the company that bears his name.

The most ambitious proposal unveiled yesterday is to build a 42-story, 1,250-key tower as a twin to the existing hotel tower that would effectively double the Trump Taj Mahal’s guest room capacity and, at least temporarily, make it the largest hotel here. According to company officials, the tower would rise on a Trump-owned site adjacent to the existing hotel, and the two buildings would be tied together by a new retail mall.

The plans, which are very preliminary, according to Trump officials, also call for 70,000 sf of new convention space, which would boost the property’s meeting space to close to 220,000 sf. Trump hopes to be in the ground in the first half of next year, and to have the expansion completed by the middle of 2007. Company officials declined to put a price tag on the project just yet, pending final plans.

Trump recently completed a $12-million renovation of three-quarters of the existing rooms at the hotel, which opened in 1990 and has been decidedly showing its age in comparison to some of the newer hotel/casino properties here. Additional décor improvements are said to be in the works as well.

Company officials also say they will make some extensive improvements to their other two casino/hotel properties here, the Trump Plaza and the Trump Marina. The latter, built in the late 70s by Hilton Hotels and acquired by Trump in 1985, will get a $15-million interior makeover, and company officials say they are looking into redoing the nondescript exterior as well.

And Trump hired the New York-based Hillier Architecture to develop plans to redo the casino area within the Trump Plaza. Company officials also announced plans to spend upwards of $45 million to revamp all of the property’s 900 rooms.