Yet another Manhattan condo association has decided that living in a Trump-branded building is no longer desirable. A Riverside Boulevard residential condominium formerly known as Trump Place is just the latest piece of real estate to choose to rebrand itself in the face of Donald Trump’s horrific presidency—and, the Washington Post reports, it’s the fifth residence to do so in a single neighborhood.
The decision follows a similar one by condo owners at 200 Riverside Blvd., a few blocks north, in October.
Both buildings sit on the former site of a rail yard on the Upper West Side that President Trump helped develop in the 1990s. The area was named Trump Place in his honor, and six buildings once bore signs with that name.
Since Election Day 2016, the owners of five buildings have decided to remove it — a stark demonstration of Trump’s unpopularity in the city that gave him his start, and which he still calls home.
While the move is meaningful for residents, it’s at most a symbolic jab at the Trump Organization: None of the buildings were affiliated with the company, and the Trumps made no money from them.
That doesn’t stop anyone from celebrating the great de-badging.
As WaPo notes, symbolic act or not, this isn’t the first time the popular-vote-loser’s political antics have had an impact on his ridiculous gilded brand. Multiple hotels have shed Individual 1’s name, but even with Trump-free branding, the company’s expansion plans have fallen apart as affiliation with the the company continues to provide ever-lessening benefits.
In other words, the Trump brand has become damaged, courtesy of his dangerous and bizarre presidency.
Just 11 properties with the Trump name remain in the city that he loves. An analysis of real estate costs discovered that square footage in a Trump building consistently goes for less than that in non-Trump communities.
Friday, Feb 22, 2019 · 6:13:40 PM +00:00
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Jessica Sutherland
And then there were none. The sixth and last Trump-branded building on Riverside Blvd. has decided to join its five other neighbors and get rid of the Trump name.
The Washington Post reports that the decision comes less than 24 hours after Thursday’s vote at 120 Riverside Blvd.
On Friday, the last building holding on to the name “Trump Place” announced that it would take down the president’s name, according to an email obtained by The Washington Post.
That email, sent out by the condo board at 220 Riverside Boulevard, said that it had held a vote of building owners, and that owners representing 83 percent of the building had cast votes.
“Of the 83 percent [that] voted, 74.7 percent voted to remove the signage, and 25.3 percent voted not to remove the signage,” the email said.
It’s worth noting that condo owners are willing to pay the price to separate themselves from Individual 1.
These decisions signal how Trump’s politics has become a weight on his brand in some of the foreign countries and liberal U.S. cities, particularly Manhattan, the city that gave him his start.
At both of these buildings, residents were willing to spend money to remove any trace of Trump’s name from their facades.