President Trump's Manhattan tower has it all: Central Park proximity, a recognizable name, and constantly heightened security.
It turns out that's not what New Yorkers want in luxury rental. Trump Tower's occupancy rate and selling prices for its condos have dropped dramatically in the last few years, and yet even falling prices can't attract businesses to fill its vacant office spaces, Bloomberg reports.
Back in 2004, Michael Sklar's family spent $1.4 million on a 57th-floor Trump Tower condo, or $1.84 million when adjusted for inflation. They then spent $400,000 on renovations, but could only get $1.83 million when selling it last October. Sklar's condo is among 13 that have sold since Trump's election, and of the nine with publicly available selling prices, "eight sold at an inflation-adjusted loss," Bloomberg reports. Manhattan-based broker Matthew Hughes told Bloomberg that kind of loss is "rare" even in today's "softening" luxury market.
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Meanwhile, much of Trump Tower's office space is now sitting empty, with once-firm square footage prices now listed as "negotiable." It's all amounted to the tower's occupancy rate falling from 99 percent seven years ago to 83 percent today, Bloomberg says. That's twice Manhattan's average vacancy rate.
While Sklar did tell Bloomberg that "the name on the building became a problem," he also chalked up his condo sale to the fact that taxis couldn't drop his mother off at the Trump Tower door anymore due to heightened security. Disclosures to investors obtained by Bloomberg also show Trump "hasn't spent much money updating Trump Tower in recent years," which only piles onto its undesirability. Read more at Bloomberg.
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