With ‘soft’ launch two weeks away, city hasn’t yet issued necessary permit

Developer Donald Trump is running into one tough customer as he races to get his riverside luxury hotel opened by Dec. 3, as originally promised.

With only two weeks to go, Chicago’s Department of Buildings has not yet issued the necessary occupancy permit for the 339-room Trump International Hotel & Tower at Wabash and the Chicago River, which Trump wants to open in phases over the next few months.

“Even though it’s almost all done, things can go wrong and people would hold the city liable,” said one source close to City Hall. “The administration is being very cautious.” The hotel will occupy floors 14-27 of the 92-story residential tower, which is still under construction.

The “soft” opening called for three hotel floors to open Dec. 3. The remaining guest floors would be phased in, with completion expected in the first quarter.

The gradual opening would allow the hotel to start generating revenue from closing on sales of condo-hotel units and from room rentals. Condo-hotel units are sold to individuals who have the option of placing them in rental pools when they are not using them.

“We’d like to open on Dec. 3,” Trump said Monday afternoon. “This is the date we’re shooting at, but that’s up to the city.

“They want to make sure everything is perfect, and it is,” he said.

Talks are continuing and the developer said he hopes for further word later in the week. Because of the phased nature of the opening, Trump is seeking a “partial certificate of occupancy,” and the city is still reviewing the request, said Bill McCaffrey, a spokesman for the Department of Buildings.

“When deciding whether to allow occupancy, the safety and well-being of all occupants is our first concern,” he said.

The city has been shaken by a number of building-related incidents in recent years, including the 2003 stampede at the E2 nightclub, which left 21 people dead, and a Lincoln Park porch collapse the same year that left 13 people dead.

The Trump “structure is entirely different than those,” said McCaffrey. “I believe the developer was clear from the beginning that they were looking at a phased development . . . it was built into the design of the building.”

The floors that would open later in the year, and early next year, are close to being finished, Trump said. “It’s just punch items,” he said, such as the installation of television sets, mattresses and bedding.

The hotel plans to employ 400 people, and “a little over 100 are being trained as we speak,” Trump said.

A soft opening, which often occurs several months prior to an official, highly publicized grand opening, allows a hotel to polish its performance while its guest roster remains small. But the trick, where the property is still under construction, is to keep the guests and the construction mess away from each other.

One key is making sure there’s an entrance located away from the construction, and away from any overhead work, noted Ted Mandigo, an Elmhurst-based hotel consultant. The entire 92-story tower is scheduled for completion in April 2009. Construction on the tower is now going on at the 50th floor and above, a good 300 feet away from the hotel floors, T. Colm O’Callaghan, vice president and managing director of the hotel said in a recent interview.

“There will be no impact on the hotel experience in the building,” he said.

By Kathy Bergen | Tribune staff reporter