Donald Trump was not the developer of a failed 24-story oceanfront condo in Fort Lauderdale and didn’t mislead buyers who plunked down up to $1 million for a luxury pad, the developer and reality TV star testified Monday.
Trump appeared as a witness in a Broward County, Fla., courthouse in a lawsuit brought by two people who lost money after putting down deposits in the upscale hotel-condo development once known as the Trump International Hotel & Tower.
The troubled development collapsed in 2009 under the weight of the Great Recession. About that time, Trump backed out of the deal. It went into foreclosure the next year.
The developer, wearing a dark gray suit and bright red tie, told the courtroom that he merely licensed his name to the developer, SB Associates, and considered himself on the development team, but was not the high-rise’s developer.
Trump said he licensed his name to the project to boost its image and marketability, according to a report by the Sun-Sentinel.
“It says in the contract documents who the developer is,” said Trump, at times reading from a thick legal document. Twice Trump asked to borrow the glasses of Judge Jeffrey Streitfeld to read documents placed in front of him by his lawyer Herman Russomanno Sr.
“This has never happened before,” the judge remarked.
Resuming his testimony after the courtroom enjoyed a good laugh, Trump summed up the closing documents: “It doesn’t say I’m the developer.”
The developer was a witness for the defense and was questioned by Russomanno for about 10 minutes.
“We had high hopes for the project,” Trump said. “It was a good location … We would have ultimately done a very good job had the market not crashed.”
Michael Goodson, one of the buyers, said he lost half of his $340,000 deposit.
Goodson only purchased a unit in the building because he believed Trump was the developer, he said outside the courtroom. He is suing to get back $170,000 of his deposit.
Elizabeth Lee Beck, a lawyer for Goodson, cross-examined Trump for about 90 minutes.
Trump appeared in plenty of marketing documents and mailings — some even had him welcoming people to his latest development.
“We work with the developers to build a beautiful project so that the units could be sold or rented,” Trump said.
More than 100 buyers in the original project have sued to get their deposits back.
Goodson and John Taglierei are the first plaintiffs to bring the case to trial.
Later, when Trump was done testifying, Streitfeld drew a laugh from Trump by borrowing his best-known quote to dismiss him from the witness stand.
“You’re fired,” the judge said. “Sorry, I had to.”