GALLERY: Donald Trump, Rob Ford and more VIPs at the opening of the Trump Tower
GALLERY: Donald Trump, Rob Ford and more VIPs at the opening of the Trump Tower
The new Trump International Hotel and Tower is over the top—naturally, so was the opening. Rob and Doug Ford (along with Rob’s wife Renata, who made a rare public appearance with her husband), Blue Jay J.P. Arencibia and Maple Leaf John-Michael Liles were all on hand to watch Donald Trump and his kids Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr. cut the ribbon on the tower (using gold-plated scissors brought in on silver trays by scantily-clad models, of course). Technically, the 65-storey luxury behemoth at Bay and Adelaide opened its doors in January, but, hey, everyone loves a ceremony, especially when it involves The Donald entering in a procession of Toronto police officers and bagpipes.
Arencibia and Liles each gave Trump a jersey to take home, emblazoned with his last name and the number 1. Trump returned the Toronto love, even saying that Ford—always controversial among the locals—has a “spectacular” reputation around the world. Still, in spite of the hoopla, it’s hard to ignore the fact that the luxury hotel and condo has had a few hiccups, namely, falling glass and angry investors looking to back out condo deals. Needless to say, the Toronto Star, which faithfully kept tabs on the development and its many shortcomings, was not invited to the party.
Check out all the photos from the ribbon cutting »
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- Donald Trump, with daughter Ivanka and sons Donald Jr. and Eric, cut the ceremonial ribbon (Image: George Pimentel)
- Trump International Hotel and Tower grand opening
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- Media, police and gawkers gather at the entrance of the tower before the bagpipers and speeches get going (Image: George Pimentel)
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- Trump and Rob Ford (Image: George Pimentel)
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- (Image: George Pimentel)
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- Trump, Ford’s wife Renata, Ford and Trump’s daughter Ivanka (Image: George Pimentel)
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- Ivanka Trump (Image: George Pimentel)
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- Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump (Image: George Pimentel)
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- Trump welcomes the crowd and brags that the Toronto tower may be one of his best hotels to date—though he is actually only a minority shareholder (Image: George Pimentel)
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- (Image: George Pimentel)
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- The Trump clan readies their gold-plated scissors (Image: George Pimentel)
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- Trump shakes the hand of Alex Shnaider, the billionaire and chairman of Talon International Development Inc. who owns the tower. Shnaider has reportedly decided to keep the $20-million penthouse suite (Image: George Pimentel)
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- Donald Jr., Donald, Ivanka and Eric Trump (Image: George Pimentel)
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- Trump received both a Maple Leafs jersey and a Blue Jays jersey—each bearing the #1, natch (Image: George Pimentel)
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- Maple Leafs defenceman John-Michael Liles gifts the celeb-developer a jersey (Image: George Pimentel)
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- Trump, Liles and Blue Jay J.P. Arencibia (Image: George Pimentel)
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- Arencibia and Trump with his Blue Jays jersey (Image: George Pimentel)
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- Talon International CEO Val Levitan, Liles, Shnaider, Arencibia and Trump (Image: George Pimentel)
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- Arencibia, Trump and Liles (Image: George Pimentel)
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Likw really..who cares?
you’re fired!
multimillion dollar cubicles with $3000 /month condo fees. Yeah this article really applies to all of us.
who the f#$% cares.
This hotel/condo looks like it’s off to a rough start. 3 months after the soft opening, the entire management staff has quit. There was a posting for a GM a few weeks ago. How can you not have a proper GM in a establishment that size?
Then again it is Donald, so I can’t expect him to be as professional as The Ritz, Four Seasons, Le Germain, Shangri-La, the list goes on.
@BG011: The GM is Mikael Damelincourt, who has not quit. Good intel, though.
Trump would like Ford both have egos the size of their heads fat and overstated and full of themselves. No one outside of TO knows who Ford is so that is a lie. Even the Missisauga mayor McCallion is more well known that Ford in the US.
Well done you all continue to inspire me. Family, success, achievement,love and strength. You teach us all truly how we should all be enjoying this lifetime.
Love you all Constance Wade