Trump Soho gets official April 9 opening date, and schedule set for closings

Renderings from the Trump Soho hotel

The controversial Trump Soho has scheduled its first round of unit closings by mid-April, not long after it officially opens April 9, The Real Deal has learned.

The high-rise condo-hotel has been delayed due to years of legal wrangling with community opponents that have challenged the property’s zoning, a fatal 2008 crane collapse at the site and a weak credit environment that slowed financing.

“Trump Soho, the first downtown property for the Trump Hotel Collection, is opening April 9, 2010,” according to an e-mailed statement from the developer. “The closings will begin after the hotel opens.”

The 46-story property at 246 Spring Street, at the corner of Varick Street, broke ground in 2007 and was previously scheduled to open in the fall of 2009, then on Feb. 1, 2010.

Leonard Chinchay, vice president of closings at listing broker, Prodigy International, sent notices out earlier this month to find out when buyers were available to close. And then earlier this week, Trump Soho officials sent out letters notifying buyers that closings were set for mid-April, according to documents obtained by The Real Deal.

The 391-unit property will be one of the biggest condo-hotel projects to hit New York in many years. The building — which Streeteasy.com shows had sales prices up to $2.5 million for an 845-square-foot unit when the units were being marketed in 2007 — is a joint development of the Bayrock Group and the Sapir Organization, with the Trump Organization spearheading the marketing and operations.

Trump won a legal fight in December against the Soho Alliance, a community organization that filed suit challenging the developer’s right to build a transient hotel in Soho. The Soho Alliance has filed an appeal with the New York City Board of Standards and Appeals.