Scheduled to begin construction early next year and take about 24 months to complete, the $300 million project would feature 1,000 hotel rooms, 50 luxury residential units of up to 10,000 square feet, a spa and restaurants. It would not have a casino, Trump said from New York.

"It's a super high-end, luxury residential hotel condominium tower," Trump said yesterday.

The project would be patterned after the Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York, Trump said.

Trump is building the 1.6-million-square foot hotel in partnership with Phil Ruffin, who owns the Frontier. The project would have no immediate effect on the Frontier, Trump said.

The 645-foot tall tower would barely eclipse two neighboring hotel-casino projects.

Sheldon Adelson has filed plans to build a 53-story, 642-foot-tall resort next to his The Venetian hotel-casino on the Strip. The $1.6 billion resort called The Palazzo is scheduled to open in early 2007.

The $2.6 billion Wynn Las Vegas hotel now under construction will be 50 stories and rise 613 feet above Las Vegas Boulevard. It's scheduled to open in April 2005.

Trump International Hotel and Tower would top those projects, but not all others. The Stratosphere hotel-casino is the tallest structure in Las Vegas and west of the Mississippi River at more than 1,100 feet — but doesn't have hotel rooms above 24 stories.

Bergman, Walls and Associates designed the Trump project, featuring gold glass with white trim.

Bob Klein, a senior Clark County planner who reviewed the plans, said several hearings are scheduled before county commissioners consider the project Oct. 6.

In February, state gambling regulators approved Trump to hold a stake in the Riviera hotel-casino in Las Vegas. At the time Trump said the move was a foot-in-the-door licensing opportunity and didn't figure in his future Nevada plans that included building a high-end condominium tower.

Regulators didn't discuss Trump's actions in the state in the 1980s that led to legislation against "greenmailing" of Nevada casino corporations. The greenmailing law was prompted in part by Trump's reported $31.7 million profit when Bally Corp. bought back his 9.9 percent interest in the company in 1987. Trump also made a $35 million profit from an investment in Holiday Corp.

The Nevada law was aimed at stopping entrepreneurs from buying stock in public companies in hopes that the companies would buy back the stock at higher prices to avoid hostile takeovers.