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Trump Tower's Fate On Hold Again

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By SHANNON BEHNKEN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 10, 2007

TAMPA - The future of Trump Tower Tampa is still uncertain.

Tampa developer SimDag LLC sent one buyer an e-mail today informing him that the company will make a decision by Wednesday whether or not to build the tower. It is the third time in two weeks that the deadline has been postponed.

"This is frustrating, but what can you do about it?" said George Galiouridis, who was among the first to put up a 20 percent deposit on a $1.1 million condo two years ago.

SimDag told buyers last week that it would find out by Sept. 5 whether a New York hedge fund would finance the deal, Galiouridis said. If the answer is no, SimDag would start returning deposits, the company's chief executive officer posted on the project's Web site.

A St. Petersburg firm working to match SimDag with a willing hedge fund has said that the deal looked strong, but that the hedge fund wanted Donald Trump to first drop his lawsuit against the Tampa developer.

The new deadline of Wednesday is the same day SimDag is expected to file its legal answer to Trump's suit.

Frank Dagostino, SimDag's chief executive officer, could not be reached for comment today. Dagostino had said Friday that the negotiations were continuing.

Trump, reached by telephone today, said he could not comment on the negotiations but hoped to know something by the end of the week.

"We have a very strong lawsuit, and we'll just have to see," Trump said.

SimDag announced the 52-story tower in early 2005 but never secured financing. Only foundation work has been done so far.

Trump, who licensed his name to SimDag, sued in May, saying he had not been paid and wanted out of the deal.

Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804 or sbehnken@tampatrib.com.

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