resort. look at this letter from the project s developer to buyers in august of 2007. one of the two signatures at the bottom. donald j. trump. official brochures also made it seem as if he was a developer. developed by one of the most respected names in real estate, donald j. trump. trump said it too. when i build i have investors that follow me all over. they invest in me and they invest in what i build. that s why i m so excited about trump ocean resort. when i build, what i build. but trump was not going to build anything at trump ocean resort, baja, mexico. he didn t develop it. the company licensing his name did that. he set up this international licensing business where he would realize that there was an incredible value to the name trump and that he could sell it and he didn t have to put anything into the project. he didn t put in any money.
it s been a decade since sandra felt duped by donald trump. it was 2008. the international housing crisis was coming to a boil. and she said something was wrong with trump ocean resort bah ha mexico. so we got in a car, we drove down there and that office was closed and there was no furniture left. we said wait. no. no, nothing s wrong. within weeks two letters. this was the very first time we heard the trump brand name the trump this and it developer that. it read trump marks bajallc is elected to terminate the license agreement. the second letter explained given the extreme dislocation of the financial market, a baja project will not be able to proceed. she felt stunned. and deceived.
love about this project is the fact that it s in baja, mexico and baja is one of the really hot places. for sandra sapol in suburban san diego, having a second home, especially one in baja is a dream. not everybody s is the same american dream. ours was, have a family, have a pickett fence and have that second property. it s why she bought a condo at one of those trump licensed properties. trump ocean resort, baja, mexico. only problem was, she didn t know that she was buying into a property this was supposed to be my view. that had licensed the trump name. these are the rest of this project. i own a franchise. i totally know the word licenseor, licensee but i had never heard it from the mouths of anyone representing trump
building a lot. the trump international hotel and tower in soho is the site of my latest development. that s downtown new york city. there was also northern mexico. escape to a place that is close to home, yet a world away. just ten miles from the u.s. border trump is offering five star luxury to people who didn t think they could ever afford it. big windows, great fixtures, beautiful kitchens. i said, oh, my god, that s amazing, let s do it. sandra sapol of suburban san diego was immediately interested in the trump ocean resort in baja, mexico. a big reason, it didn t have a southern california price tag. we don t make that kind of money where we re driving around in a ferrari or a lamborghini. we re regular people. we met this lady who showed us
be like how could this have happened? trump ocean resort baja, mexico was never built, construction never got beyond this, a giant hole in the ground. so there s my hole. that s what i bought, my hole. the failure of trump ocean resort baja, mexico was among several trump buildings that failed in the early 2000s. two projects planned for florida, also failed. the soho hotel, it went bankrupt. so did buildings in panama and toronto. most people in the city when that tower went bankrupt sort of that you canned it up to the global financial crisis, selling condos at a bad time. but a lot of people were building condos during the global financial crisis and none of them went bankrupt.