Planned Vegas tower featured in ‘Apprentice’ season finale

Jennifer Shubinski

Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2004 | 10:51 a.m.

Las Vegas' high-rise tower boom will get national exposure Thursday night when Donald Trump takes his planned Trump International Hotel and Tower Las Vegas to the set of NBC's "The Apprentice."

The show will kick off presales, starting Friday, for the 64-story condominium-hotel, slated for the corner of Fashion Show Drive and Las Vegas Boulevard across from Fashion Show mall.

Prices for the units, ranging from 636 square feet to more than 3,000 square feet, will start at $550,000 to more than $6 million.

The 645-foot-tall Las Vegas condo will be one of two Trump projects that the winner of the reality TV show will get to choose from, said Jack Wishna, president and chief executive of CPAmerica Inc., and a partner in the tower.

The project is a joint venture between Trump and Phil Ruffin, owner of the Frontier Hotel.

The other choice the final contestant will be presented is working on a residential Trump project on the west side of Manhattan, Wishna said.

"Obviously I'm biased. Why wouldn't someone want to be in the 24-hour entertainment capital of the world?" Wishna said.

Wishna said he does not know who will be chosen as Trump's assistant, adding that Thursday's show is taped live and anything can happen.

Wishna expects the show to be a huge boost to the project and will help it gain both national and international exposure it could not otherwise have obtained.

"I can only assume we're going to be overloaded," he said. "If I have to personally man the phones I will. That's why I'm here."

Construction on a 10,000-square-foot sales center at Las Vegas Boulevard and Fashion Show Drive is expected to start soon with an opening date slated for April 28 -- the same day as Wynn Las Vegas, which is across the street, Wishna said.

If the show's winner chooses Las Vegas, Wishna said the key word is that that person will be an apprentice.

"If they choose Las Vegas, then that person will have the dual role of publicity and marketing responsibilities for the organization and the third season (of the show)," he said.

The final contestant also earn a $250,000 salary and will get the chance to learn the construction and development business from Trump and his key executives, Wishna said.