2 Trump hotel unit owners face foreclosure

Crain's Chicago Business reports:

Donald Trump’s ritzy new downtown hotel is attracting guests no property owner wants to see: foreclosure lawyers.

In another bad sign for the New York developer, lenders have filed foreclosure suits on two condominium-hotel units in his 92-story Chicago skyscraper, which has been clobbered by the condo bust and the worst hotel market in decades.

The investors who bought the two units from the developer last year are trying to sell them at steep discounts through so-called short sales, or for less than the debt owed on the units. One hotel room is on the market for less than half of what it sold for in March 2008.

Foreclosures and short sales have become routine in the current real estate market, and two lawsuits don’t represent a trend. But they rarely happen so quickly at high-end projects like the Trump International Hotel & Tower, which just opened last year.

Great moments in real estate.