The former US President continues his business activity and even has agreed to sell his famous Washington, DC, hotel situated less than a mile away from the White House. The offer from an outside company looked rather attractive to Trump despite the new owner plans to remove the Trump name from the building and turn it over to the Hilton group for management, the Wall Street Journal has learned.
The buyer is a CGI Merchant Group from Miami, according to the preliminary deal. The CGI reportedly to acquire the hotel lease for the Trump International Hotel, however, the matter is still private. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter, the insiders suggest.
The hotel had been a source of consistent controversy, with critics arguing foreign governments and other interest groups could gain favour by booking rooms at a property owned by the former president’s company.
The CGI plans to remove the Trump name and to convert the property to a Waldorf Astoria managed by Hilton. Trump won the rights to develop the hotel, located in Washington’s Old Post Office building on Pennsylvania Avenue, in 2012, leasing the building from the federal government.
Trump Organization’s company has been engaged in off-and-on efforts to sell the hotel since 2019, when it floated an asking price of more than $500 million.
According to documents released by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, the hotel received about $3.75 million in payments from foreign governments, but still lost more than $70 million during Trump’s time in the White House. The Trump Organization disputed the report.
