Crain’s has an excellent inside look at the business of selling luxury condos in Trump’s under-construction tower in River North.

According to the article – which features interviews with Koenig & Strey GMAC‘s Rob Shearer and Kiyoko Binosi – 85 percent of the building’s 500 condos sold within the first four months. Then the Donald changed the tower’s interior composition, reducing the office space and adding almost 300 new residential units into the mix.

The building is now being built around 758 for-sale residences, and the winter slowdown is making things even tougher for the Koenig & Strey brokerage team. From the Crain’s article:

Meanwhile, sales activity slowed in late 2004 as workers began the long task of constructing the tower, a slowdown indicative of the sales pattern of a new building, says Gail Lissner, vice-president with Appraisal Research Counselors, a Chicago real estate consulting firm. “After the initial surge, the rate of sales declines until the point when people can see the building nearing completion,” she says.