"I'm a miracle worker," Trump said, promising a "spectacular" project that would be "the finest of its kind anywhere in the world."

The deal, subject to zoning, planning and regulatory approvals, calls for a luxury golf course and a combination of housing, office, hotel and retail space in New Jersey's environmentally sensitive Meadowlands ecosystem near New York.

A spokesman for private-equity firm Cherokee Investment Partners LLC, which took over the project in 2000, confirmed the deal, The (Hackensack, N.J.) Record reported.

EnCap was first approved to build a golf course and housing in 1999, but the project has stalled repeatedly.

In June, the regulatory New Jersey Meadowlands Commission found EnCap in default. It later issued a 60-day notice, setting a Nov. 20 deadline for EnCap to fix environmental violations and put up at least $15 million in fines and security to ensure closure of the Rutherford and Lyndhurst landfills -- or be booted off the site, the Record said.

Meadowlands Commission spokesman Christopher Gale said the agency was unaware of any Trump deal.