Another Condo Sheds the Trump Name
Oct. 19, 2018 — Unit-owners vote to remove the T-word from their building’s facade.
Another one has bitten the dust. Another Trump-branded building, that is.
In response to a vote by 69.3 percent of unit-owners – slightly more than the required two-thirds supermajority – the condo board at 200 Riverside Boulevard on the Upper West Side had the words TRUMP PLACE removed from the eastern and western facades of the building on Thursday, the Washington Post reports. It’s the latest in a lengthening string of properties – including three others in the immediate neighborhood – that have distanced themselves from the Trump brand since the 2016 election.
Unit-owners in the 46-story tower at 200 Riverside Boulevard were informed of the decision to remove the signs Wednesday afternoon in an email from the condo board. “We are pleased to have resolved this matter democratically,” the board wrote in its email. “Our entire community has engaged in a thorough and respectful deliberative process regarding how to address the signage on our building. We encourage everyone to move forward and respect the will of the community.”
The fight over the signs at 200 Riverside Boulevard began early last year, after some residents complained about the building’s association with Trump – and declining apartment values. In response, the building’s board took an informal poll of residents, asking them if they wanted to remove the name. In that initial survey, about 63 percent said yes. But then the board got a letter from Alan Garten, chief legal officer for the Trump Organization. The letter stated that, under a licensing agreement signed in 2000, the building agreed to pay Trump $1 a year for use of his name – and the signs could not be taken down.
To force the issue, the board sued the Trump Organization instead – and quickly won. “The court does not find any of [the Trump Organization’s] arguments convincing,” said Judge Eileen Bransten.
The Trump name, usually writ large and in gold, is still on more than 40 buildings around the world, including the two remaining “Trump Place” buildings on Riverside Boulevard. That is subject to change.