Trump’s tower at 40 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan is on “lender watch” as it faces mounting financial difficulties, reported the Huffington Post on Friday.
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Donald Trump speaks to the press in the James Brady Press Briefing Room.
“The vacancy rate at the 72-story building — Trump’s most valuable — jumped to almost 18% in the third quarter of last year, according to a monthly filing on the building’s remaining $126.5 million mortgage, Bloomberg reported. Expenses, meanwhile, have reportedly risen 11% since the origin of the 2015 mortgage,” wrote Mary Papenfuss. “Wells Fargo, which is servicing the mortgage on 40 Wall Street, ‘has reached out to the borrower for a status of leasing developments’ and the plans to improve the property’s performance, according to the filing, Bloomberg reported.”
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Business at Trump’s properties has been in decline for years, as his controversial presidency made the Trump brand less desirable to tenants. The problem was compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, which crashed demand for office space all over Manhattan.
Trump, who acquired 40 Wall Street in 1995, has long bragged about owning the historic skyscraper. He even bragged after 9/11 that with the downing of the Twin Towers, it was now the tallest building in the city — which was not true.
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All of this comes as Trump’s businesses are facing a series of legal woes.
The Trump Organization was sentenced to a fine of $1.6 million — the highest allowed by law — from a criminal conviction over the company’s use of off-book perks to avoid creating tax liabilities for its executives. Meanwhile, a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his family by New York Attorney General Letitia James that could cost hundreds of millions, and possibly even ban the former president from serving as an executive in the business.