The planned luxury hotel-condominium by Donald Trump in Waikiki was well on its way to selling out yesterday as a few hundred prospective buyers selected units and signed sales contracts for $445,000 to $4.5 million each.

Among the buyers was Rey Hidalgo, 35, a local truck driver for Coca-Cola who teamed up with five friends to buy two studios for a total of $1.2 million.

"That's an awesome feeling," Hidalgo said after picking the units with his buddies.

"It went fast," said Hidalgo friend and partner Ron Hagenhoff, 40, a Hawai'i State Hospital technician and part-time real estate broker. "There was not as much a selection as we'd have liked."

About three hours into the selection event at the Halekulani Hotel, Hidalgo and friends had just over 100 units available to choose from in the 462-unit project.

Peter Dupuis, CEO of Canada-based S&P Destination Properties handling the Trump project sales, said the response outdid any of S&P's previous 120 projects.

"I've never seen such demand," he said. "It's been unbelievable."

The selection event held yesterday allowed many of the project's roughly 1,500 interested buyers to make a purchase largely in the order they made nonbinding reservations.

The event operated like a professional sports draft except instead of teams choosing players one by one, investors chose condo units.

Among other buyers were local entertainer Don Ho, Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka, a large contingent of investors from Japan and business partnerships.

Kathleen Kagawa, president of local development and construction firm Hawaii 5-0 Group, teamed up with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1186 business manager Gerald Yuh and one other partner to buy two suites for $1.5 million.

Kagawa also bought another unit with a different group of associates.

"Today's been a good day," she said. "It's the only fee-simple, five-diamond, condo-hotel in Waikiki."

Like Kagawa, many buyers plan to rent units out to visitors through Trump's on-site management firm, an off-site property manager or on their own.

One observer roughly estimated that total sales could run around $700 million for Trump International Hotel and Tower Waikiki Beach Walk.

The project is being developed by the flamboyant New York developer and star of the reality TV show "The Apprentice" with California-based real estate firm Irongate Capital.

Construction of the 38-story tower on Saratoga Road fronting Fort DeRussy is scheduled to start in December and be completed in mid-2009.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.