UWS Condo Building Removes Trump Name The Move Ends a Long Battle for Residents at 200 Riverside Boulevard

UWS Condo Building Removes Trump Name
Billy Hathorn at English Wikipedia, from Wikimedia Commons

From now on, an Upper West Side condo building will no longer be called 'Trump Place.'

The New York Times reported last week that the name was removed from the facade of 200 Riverside Boulevard following a battle involving the condo owners and the Trump Organization.

The letters spelling out T-R-U-M-P P-L-A-C-E were recently taken down, and the building will now be referred to simply as 200 Riverside Boulevard.

In a recent formal poll conducted by the board, 70 percent of the owners expressed their desire to remove the sign. The name change will cost about $23,000, according to the board's estimate.

In 2000, the building entered into a licensing agreement in which it would pay $1 in perpetuity for the privilege of carrying the Trump name. But after the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, about 63 percent of the residents expressed a preference to have the name removed last year. Meanwhile, an attorney for the Trump Organization, Alan Garten, sent a letter to the condo board, stating that the company would initiate a lawsuit if such a move happened. 

Amid reported internal division among the building's residents, the condo board asked the state court if it could remove the name without violating the licensing agreement. This past May, a judge ruled that the condo owners were not required “to use the identification ‘Trump’ on the facade of the premises.” The judge also shot down the requirement that the building must use the name “in perpetuity,” the Times reported.

Despite Trump affiliate-company DJT Holdings saying it would appeal the decision, the deadline for an appeal expired on October 1, and no action was taken, the Times reported.

200 Riverside Boulevard is the latest property to extricate itself from being associated with Trump; three other buildings near 200 Riverside also had Trump's name removed from their premises, as a well as a condo-hotel in SoHo.

Eric Trump, Donald Trump's son who's involved in his father's business along with brother Donald Trump Jr., did not offer a comment to the Times about the name change.

The Trump Organization doesn't own 200 Riverside, but manages it.

David Chiu is an associate editor at The Cooperator.  

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2 Comments

  • I feel sorry for the 37% of the owners who unlike their neighbors voted against the loss of value and breach of contract. Trump Organization will rightfully win the lawsuit if it encounters a non-ideological judge - a rare species in the New York judicial system.
  • Nope. Trump name is now synonymous with dishonorable behavior around the world. International buyers will veer away from it and the concern about legal exposure given the risk of prosecution based on the emoluments clause is not to be taken lightly. It's the right move from a value perspective. No one wants Enron energy management anymore either.