Trump’s DC Hotel Under Contract to Sell For $375M, Will Be Rebranded Without Trump Name: Report

The Trump Organization is selling the lease rights to the Trump International Hotel in Washington to the Miami-based CGI Merchant Group for $375 million, the Wall Street Journal first reported on Sunday.

According to the Journal, CGI plans to remove the Trump name and has partnered with Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. to rebrand the hotel as a Waldorf Astoria.

Former President Donald Trump‘s company unsuccessfully tried to sell the hotel in 2019 to no avail, and Sunday’s report shows a marked drop from the $500 million asking price two years ago.

The hotel took a big hit amid the Covid pandemic, with revenue dropping more than 60%, according to the Washington Post. Additional reporting found that between the hotel’s opening in 2016 through last year, it netted a loss of $70 million — despite the Trump Organization claiming it had earned $156 million.

The historic U.S. Post Office building in which the hotel is located is owned by the federal government, which is why the deal concerns the leasing rights.

Trump beat

out several prominent hotel chains in 2012 — including Hilton — when he won the rights to the lease, which was mutually conditioned on the Trump Organization spending $200 million on renovations.

In addition to the $200 million renovation investment, Trump’s nearly 100-year lease with the General Services Administration required $3 million in base rent, plus inflation costs.

Any sale of the leasing rights will have to be approved by the General Services Administration.