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Bloomberg News reported this week that the 36-year-old building “has been turned into a fortress,” since Trump took over in the Oval Office, with entrances partially blocked and the president’s name turning off liberals in Manhattan.
According to reports, condo owners have been cashing out, with many selling at a 20 percent loss to get out of the building. Less than one percent of homes in Manhattan have sold for a loss in the past two years according to PropertyShark, which reported that only 57 out of 24,871 homes in Manhattan have sold for a loss in the same time period.
The commercial levels of the building have also seen better days, with more than 42,000-square-feet of vacant office space and reported advertised rates “substantially lower than average” in the area. Occupancy in those spaces has decreased from 99 percent seven years ago to approximately 83 percent.
In response to the plunging occupancy in the building, Trump reportedly has spent nearly a million dollars over the past two years to rent space in the building, though the president has only visited a handful of times since becoming president, according to NBC News.
“On any given midweek afternoon, the number of government and Trump Organization security personnel rival the number of other people inside the building’s atrium,” the report states.
According to the report, a resident who sold his parent’s home in the building said that “the name on the building became a problem,” and real estate agents have been told “repeatedly” not to show them units in Trump buildings by potential clients.
The report notes that prices in Trump Tower once ranged from $72 to $85 per square foot annually, though those numbers are now listed as negotiable, and the president’s organization hasn’t spent much money to renovate the building in recent years. Despite that, the building reportedly still generated upwards of $10 million in 2018.
”It’s totally a tourist trap,” Barbara Res, a former Trump Organization executive who oversaw the building’s construction reportedly said. “I don’t think I would want an office in Trump Tower. Why would you go there? It’s a wonder he doesn’t have 50 percent vacancy.”
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