Trump Tower, President Donald Trump’s most notable real estate property, has fallen on dark days as condo owners are selling at losses of more than 20 percent just to leave, Bloomberg News reports.
Since 2016, most condo sales at Trump Tower have recorded a loss and some have recorded losses of more than 20 percent, Bloomberg reports. By comparison, just 0.23 percent of homes in Manhattan have sold at a loss over the same time period.
Businesses are staying away too. The commercial part of the building has “been struggling for months to find tenants for more than 42,000 square feet of vacant office space, despite advertising rents well below the area’s average,” Bloomberg reported.
The building’s occupancy rate has fallen from 99 percent to 83 percent of the last seven years. The vacancy rate is now about twice the average vacancy rate in Manhattan.
Trump campaign funneling money to Trump Tower:
Despite the exodus of residents, Trump Tower’s net income rose slightly last year but that was largely thanks to Trump’s 2020 campaign committee spending more than $890,000 over the last two years to rent space in Trump Tower. It’s unclear why the campaign is based in New York, where the president spends little time and where Hillary Clinton received about 80 percent of the vote.
Despite funneling donor money to prop up his struggling building, Trump Tower’s net income is still about “26% lower than what bankers expected when they evaluated Trump’s fitness for a $100 million loan in 2012,” Bloomberg reported.
Trump Doral resort sees profits plummet 69%:
Trump Tower is far from the only struggling entity in Trump’s real estate portfolio. The Washington Post reported that Trump’s Doral Miami golf resort has seen its income plummet by 69% since 2015.
After falling short of revenue projections, the Trump Organization tried to get its tax bill reduced.
“They are severely underperforming,” tax consultant Jessica Vachiratevanurak told a Miami-Dade County official, explaining that “there is some negative connotation that is associated with the brand.”
