The time Donald Trump tried to evict an entire building of rent-controlled tenants — and lost

In 1981, Donald Trump bought two adjacent buildings on Central Park South for $13 million, and a few years later, he tried to evict the tenants of one of the buildings, 100 Central Park South (now called Trump Parc East). That's partly because he wanted to replace the two buildings with luxury high-rise condos, but also because most of his tenants were paying ridiculously low rent in the rent-controlled building, The New York Times reports, focusing on Madelyn Rubinstein, whose rent was $93.08 a month — the same amount her grandmother had paid since 1967.

The tenants fought Trump's attempts to evict them. They hired a lawyer, David Rozenholc, and sued Trump. After a long and public battle, Trump agreed in 1986 to let the buildings stand and the tenants keep their existing rents. In the late '90s, he turned Trump Parc East into condos, but let renters stay, and some are still paying less than $1,000 a month for a one-bedroom.

For some reason, Trump still calls his effort a success. "It was a long battle, but it was a successful battle," he told The Times. "As usual, I came out on top."

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Read more about the battle, and the crazy, unfair world of New York rent, at The New York Times.