The first condo-hotel tower is expected to be open by mid-2008 with 1,282 units. The timeline for the second tower, which will also cost an estimated $500 million, hasn't been finalized but will take about a year and a half to build.

"It's a great tribute to Las Vegas," Trump said at a groundbreaking event Tuesday. The two towers will go up on about seven acres of land behind the New Frontier and across the street from the Fashion Show mall.

Buyers reserved all of the units in the first tower within the first four-and-a-half days on the market, a possible record for Las Vegas, Trump said.

Sales in both units officially began Wednesday, when a $3 million sales office - complete with white leather chairs and brass finishes - opened to the public at the cor­ner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Fashion Show Drive.

Business partner Phil Ruffin, who owns the New Frontier hotel and casino, said he put up land for the project and invested "tens of millions" of his own money along with Trump. The land, part of the casino's rear parking lot, is a fraction of the more than 60 acres at the New Frontier. As soon as next year, Ruffin plans to tear down the New Frontier and build a major resort with about 3,500 rooms at a potential cost of $1.5 billion.

The resort would eventually connect with the two towers, creating a complex of more than 6,000 rooms on the site, Ruffin said.

Prices for units in the first tower range from $600,000 to $6 million - up to 30 percent more than originally advertised. In true Trump fashion, the tower will be clad in 24-carat gold glass and outfitted with Italian marble floors, sub-zero refrigerators and flat-screen TVs. Other features include a spa, fitness center, salon, outdoor pool and bar, business center and restaurants.

The announcement comes in the midst of a condo gold rush in Las Vegas, where some 29,000 units have been proposed or are under construction around the Strip. Many experts are already awaiting the demise of several high-rise projects as proposals begin to outpace potential buyers and construction costs soar to meet demand, pricing mid-level or off-Strip developers out of the market.

Bank financing was easily available until more recently, with virtual unknowns able to finance entire high-rise projects based on a certain number of advance reservations. That has changed in recent months as several high-rise projects have been scrapped, making banks warier about financing such deals upfront, experts say.

In an interview Tuesday, Trump said his tower has become the definitive condo investment in a market where smaller developers may end up bowing out.

"You're not going to see a lot of these other towers get built," he said. "We blow everything out of the water. We have the best location and the best building."

Brian Gordon, a partner with Las Vegas research firm Applied Analysis, said the Trump project will likely attract a significant number of buyers in spite of the frequent buyer practice of reserving units at multiple properties and dropping out before signing a sales contract.

"I think they'll have a fairly decent rate of conversion from reservations to contracts given the name and track record of the developer," Gordon said. "Investors are familiar with his product in New York and how the finishes will appear."

The Trump name alone was enough to generate significant interest in the project, Las Vegas real estate agents said.

Rebecca Hoag, an agent with Windermere Real Estate, said she had a few clients who got in too late to reserve units and are hopeful that some buyers drop out of the running over the next few days.

"This is one I endorsed because I knew it was solid," she said of the tower. "I know this is going to be a solid investment."

Century 21 Advantage Gold agent Marianne Foti said she secured more than 25 units in the tower for buyers the day after reservations were opened to the public.

"They went so quickly because of the name. The Trump name is associated with quality," she said. "There's no doubt in my mind that this will get built. I think it will be the most successful project in Las Vegas."

Through his privately held real estate company, Trump has built, bought or sold about a dozen high-rise hotels and condominium towers in New York City over about the past two decades. His publicly-held casino company, meanwhile, has emerged from bankruptcy twice and removed Trump from his position as CEO. Trump still sits on the company's board of directors.

Trump achieved rock-star status last year with his hit reality show "The Apprentice." The NBC show is one of the highest rated on television, with a fourth season now in production.

His interest in Las Vegas has remained strong over the years. He obtained a Nevada gaming license last year after buying a 10 percent stake in the Riviera casino's parent company. He sold the shares and kept the license.

Trump has discussed potential projects with several casino officials. Some never materialized because of Trump's unwillingness to put up a significant chunk of cash as equity, arguing that his name alone would make the project worth more to investors, said David Atwell, a resort broker who once represented Trump.

Trump has eyed land for a namesake casino across Las Vegas, including land at the Excalibur site, the old Frontier hotel, the Aladdin, the former Desert Inn and land across from the Sahara. He switched gears more recently, proposing to build a condo tower along the lines of his luxury buildings in New York. Trump was close to signing a deal to build a high rise at the corner of Harmon Avenue and the Strip in 1999, several months before settling on the New Frontier site to the north.

Atwell said he was surprised when he first heard of Trump's interest in the New Frontier. "I said to him, ‘You've got to be kidding.' It was a ‘B' site at the back of the property and at the north end of the Strip."

The once-overlooked location, largely because of the opening of the Wynn Las Vegas megaresort across the street, "has turned into an ‘A' site," Atwell said.

As luck would have it, Trump is now building the property across from another monumental ego and the operator of what is arguably the hottest resort in town.

Steve Wynn, a showman in his own right, is still newer to self-promotion than Trump, who has also authored several books and courts media attention.

"This is the best thing that could have happened for Trump. He can put his big gold letters across the street from Wynn's big gold letters," Atwell said.

Wynn initially planned to call his resort Le Reve after a Picasso in his art collection until marketers convinced him otherwise. His resort now features a mountain of branded merchandise, much of it bearing his name.

For all of Trump's television fame, Wynn's name has the most cachet in the gaming business given all Wynn has accomplished in Las Vegas, said David Schwartz, coordinator of the Gaming Studies Research Center at UNLV.

"He built the world's most expensive resort three times over," Schwartz said. "I'm sure if Steve Wynn had a reality TV show he'd have the same interest" from entertainment media.

Trump is branching out into other resort markets besides Las Vegas. He's building a condo-hotel tower in Chicago, also several years in the making, that will be 2.6 million square feet compared with 2 million square feet for the Las Vegas tower.

Trump was cagey when asked about whether he will eventually run his own casino resort in Las Vegas.

"Let's see what happens," he said. "The costs are high. It's pretty tough to build a big casino these days."

For now, Trump isn't part of Ruffin's planned redevelopment project but said he would consider any opportunities to do so.

"I think he's a special guy and a visionary," Trump said.

Liz Benston covers gaming for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-4077 or by e-mail at benston@lasvegassun.com.