It sure is pesky having to come up with giant balloon payments, isn’t it? And it leads to a lot of running around like a decapitated chicken by so-called captains of industry who don’t know squat about finance. Just ask Jared Kushner about his 666 Fifth Avenue Building or ask Donald Trump about his eponymously named International Hotel just down the street from the White House. Both were the source of massive last minute scurrying to avoid financial disaster. In Trump’s case, he just agreed to sell his hotel for $375 Million to Hilton. Wall Street Journal:
CGI Merchant Group, a Miami-based investment firm, is in contract to acquire the hotel lease for the Trump International Hotel, which is located a short walk down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. CGI intends to remove the Trump name, and it has reached a deal with Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. to have the property branded and managed by Hilton’s Waldorf Astoria group, these people said. […]
The sale, which people briefed on the matter said is expected to close in the first quarter, comes as Democratic-controlled House committees have been investigating and holding hearings on potential conflicts of interest and emoluments issues surrounding former President Trump.
The Trump Organization has said it didn’t market the hotel to foreign dignitaries and that it writes a check to the U.S. Treasury Department for money made from foreign government guests. […]
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has been examining the lease terms between the Trump Organization and the federal government’s General Services Administration for use of the Old Post Office. The deal predates Mr. Trump’s entry into national politics, but the committee is probing how well Mr. Trump managed conflicts of interest while president. […]
While the sale will bring a cash infusion to the Trump hotel company, it comes at a price to the company’s ambitions, hotel analysts said. The Washington hotel has been a jewel in the Trump family portfolio. In 2012, the Trumps beat out some of the most-experienced and deepest-pocketed names in the lodging business, including Marriott International Inc. and Hilton, for the rights to the lease. […]
In converting the property to a Waldorf Astoria, the new owners would be aiming to sever the property from its politicized past. “If it becomes affiliated with a luxury brand, that brand can create a new identity for the property,” Sean Hennessey, chief executive of Lodging Advisors, a New York hospitality consulting firm, told The Wall Street Journal in October.
The hotel will not be the first building, nor the last, to go into other management hands and to have the golden Trump letters stripped from the front. In fact, it might be interesting to see how many Trump hotels and properties this actually happens to. Trump is desperately trying to monetize politics right now because it’s his last refuge. His properties are not making the money they once did.
The building deserves better management than the former guy and his minions. (It’s genuinely historic. The former guy is going into the dumpster of history.)