The hotel that in many ways was a symbol of Donald Trump's term as president will soon no longer bear his name.
The Trump Organization has reached a deal to sell the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. — a property blocks from the White House where Trump regularly held court with his political allies — to CGI Merchant Group for $375M, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Trump leases the property, originally the Old Post Office Pavilion, from the federal government and has agreed to sell the rights to the Florida-based investment firm, which has partnered with former baseball star Alex Rodriguez on a fund to buy hotels. CGI has an agreement with Hilton Worldwide to convert the property into a Waldorf Astoria, the WSJ reports. It is unclear if CGI is using that fund for this acquisition.
Trump hired JLL to try to find buyers for the lease in 2019, but after the coronavirus pandemic blew a hole in the hotel market, it stopped marketing the lease. The family business brought Newmark into the fold in June to restart the marketing process, and CGI was reported to be in late-stage negotiations last month.
CGI's $375M price tag is more than $100M less than the Trump Organization was initially hoping to fetch for the property, and hotel experts expect the property's performance to improve with a luxury brand that doesn't carry political baggage. A House panel revealed last month that Trump reported losing more than $70M on the hotel during his four years in the White House.
The hotel has been at the center of multiple investigations and lawsuits, alleging Trump accepted unconstitutional payments from foreign governments trying to curry favor with him. The Trump Organization has denied those accusations.
