Posted on: Monday, April 19, 2004

Is 'Apprentice' up to Trump's task?

By John Schmeltzer and Maegan Carberry
Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — Bill Rancic soon may wish he'd won money or a spouse on reality TV rather than a year of being "The Apprentice."

The latest superstar of reality television will help manage a massive construction project — the 90-story Trump International Hotel & Tower planned for 401 N. Wabash Ave. after the Chicago Sun-Times building is torn down.

"This is the real deal. He's going to be mentored, but he will also have lots of responsibility," said Donald Trump, who was otherwise vague about what Rancic's job would entail.

Trump chose 32-year-old Rancic, a 1994 graduate of Loyola University of Chicago, over Harvard Business School graduate Kwame Jackson in Thursday's final NBC telecast of "The Apprentice."

Experienced real-estate contractors expressed skepticism that Rancic, a young cigar entrepreneur, could jump into a meaningful role in Trump's project.

"We all know that they are not going to have a youngster with his hand on the tiller of a billion-dollar real-estate project, " said Bruce Kaplan, president of Northern Realty Co., who has worked with Chicago real estate since 1981. "It's like learning to fly an F-16. You'd better hope you have an experienced pilot behind you."

Though he has had some recent experience rehabbing Chicago apartment buildings, Rancic won't be managing teams of lawyers, contractors and construction workers.

The project manager is in charge of working with city officials and orchestrating the schedules of as many as 10,000 workers over three years of construction. And the project manager is held responsible for anything that goes wrong.

"This is not for the faint of heart or the inexperienced," Kaplan said. "There probably are only 100 guys nationwide that are qualified to do this."

David Kahnweiler, president of Colliers Bennett & Kahnweiler, a Rosemont, Ill.-based developer, said he doubted that Rancic would be up to the task.

"I've been in business for 25 years, and there is no way I can imagine running that project, let alone a rookie (like him)," he said.

It's more likely that Rancic will be involved in managing the human relations side of the project, Kahnweiler said.

"Running people — whether you're building an ant hill or a 90-story building — is the same."

Whatever Rancic does, he will be a celebrity. More than 27 million viewers tuned into the season finale of "The Apprentice," making it the network's highest-rated program of the season, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Kaplan and others acknowledged that Rancic is getting an opportunity of a lifetime.

"I was working on $15 million strip shopping centers when I was his age," Kaplan said.

"When I went to work for (Arthur) Rubloff (& Co.) in 1981," he added, "it was like I had won a game show."