When the Trump Organization took over the Old Post Office building on Pennsylvania Avenue in 2013, the lease for their flagship D.C. hotel was supposed to last 60 years. All in all, the embattled company had the former post office owned by the federal government for a little over eight years — including his four years in office, when Trump administration officials required the Secret Service stay in the Trump International Hotel to help alleviate his $268,000 monthly rent with taxpayer money.
According to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, the Trump Organization reached a deal to rid themselves of the lease after two years of trying, selling the rights to the hotel for $375 million to CGI Merchant Group, a Miami investment company. The operation will become a Waldorf Astoria hotel, meaning one of the first things to go will be the Trump sign in the grand entryway.
The sale, which is expected to come in the first quarter of next year, comes after a tough couple years on the market. After the pandemic gutted hospitality profits and made the prospects of the whole sector look shaky in 2020, the original broker for the deal backed out in the fallout after the Capitol riot. Though Republicans frequented the hotel and its restaurant as a way to jockey for position within the chaotic administration, Trump ultimately lost $70 million operating the hotel during his presidency, according to the House Oversight Committee, which has been investigating the federal management of the lease.
