How The Pandemic Hit Trump’s Retail Real Estate Empire

By Dan Alexander

On the corner 59th Street and Park Avenue in midtown Manhattan stands a beautiful building named Trump Park Avenue. Once known as the Hotel Delmonico, it features arched windows, marble finishes and penthouses that have sold for upwards of $20 million. Donald Trump still owns a handful of units, including one that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump used to call home.

Recently, however, the property has lost some of its luster. The reason: Its storefronts went quiet during the pandemic. The parent company of New York Sports Clubs, which operated a gym in the building, closed its locations in March 2020, then declared bankruptcy six months later. Capital One, which was paying an estimated $1 million a year to lease space next door, left in May 2020, about a year and a half before its lease expired.

Like a lot of real estate owners, the former president has struggled to keep his commercial spaces humming in the Covid era. Heading into the pandemic, Trump had over 30 retail tenants in New York City. About a quarter of them either have left their properties or shut down their operations, according to a Forbes review.

A few blocks from Trump Park Avenue, GNC closed down its Trump Plaza location, for which it paid an estimated $400,000 in annual rent. A spokesperson for the Trump Organization says a new business will be opening soon. Data connected to the loan on the property shows that revenues have already dropped 23% from their pre-pandemic levels, causing profits to tumble 43%.

Starbucks used to have a bustling location inside Trump Tower, complete with a signed photo of Ivanka Trump kissing a coffee cup. The space was roped off on a recent visit, and the store finder on Starbucks’ website no longer shows a location inside the building. A representative for the Trump Organization claims Starbucks is still paying rent, but the outlook doesn’t look good. An employee answering the phones at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. said the coffee company had closed its location there, too.

EMPTY ENTRANCES

Signs came down and storefronts went still at several Trump properties.

Capital One, Trump Park Avenue

GNC, Trump Plaza