What a brand, what a brand, what a brand, what a mighty bad brand

I've been in a couple of Trump-branded properties.

A billion years ago, my husband and I were staying at a hotel near the UN and we wandered around the corner to Trump Tower and had a drink in the bar that was off the lobby. Nothing special about the drink; the decor was completely not to our liking. Way too glittery. Way too goldie. We were a bit disappointed that we didn't see Trump. 

This was pre-The Apprentice, but we'd been around NY often and long enough to know that he was a real estate a-hole and half-arsed "celebrity."

Also pre-The Apprentice, also a billion years ago, we ate a couple of times at Jean-Georges, an excellent restaurant housed in the Trump Hotel Tower in Columbus Circle. The lunches were great, the restaurant decor pretty subdued. I don't remember if we had to enter through the lobby. I think not. We didn't see Donald there, either.

His name was on a lot of buildings in New York, but those were the two I remember being in. 

Not that I was bothered by being in a Trump building. Not back then. He was just another real estate a-hole, another half-arse celebrity, I'm sure I'd read about in New York Magazine. 

But that was then, and this is now, and I wouldn't be caught dead in a building with the word TRUMP splayed across the front. 

Neither, apparently, would a lot of New Yorkers. 

...up and down the spine of Manhattan, condominiums in high-rise buildings emblazoned with Mr. Trump’s name have underperformed, according to sales data from two real estate tracking firms, and an analysis of the data by the Columbia University economist Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh. (Source: NY Times)

There aren't many people that I wish ill on, but Donald J. Trump's certainly one of them.

Not surprisingly, the willingness, the okay-ness, to live in a Trump branded building, began to decline in 2016, when Trump ran for President. Prior to that, he was just a NYC real-estate a-hole and half-arsed celebrty who was on a TV show and ran a lot of businesses (Trump U, Trump Airlines - which I flew once to NYC, his Atlantic City casino, etc.), businesses that he ran into the ground. 

 In a one-year window, condos in buildings that had the Trump logo went from selling at a 1 percent premium compared with similar units, to selling for 4 percent less, meaning that Trump condos became a “bargain” among the city’s luxury units, said Mr. Van Nieuwerburgh, a professor of real estate.

Even the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, one of the crowning achievements of the Trump brand, whose 80-foot cascade flowing down a wall of peach marble was reportedly built with slabs handpicked at a quarry in Italy by Mr. Trump’s ex-wife, saw the average price per square foot of its condominiums tumble 49 percent since 2013, according to Ondel Hylton, the senior director of content and research at CityRealty. The building’s age, growing competition from the ultra-luxurious condos on nearby Billionaires’ Row and regular protests have all dampened interest, Mr. Hylton said.

You know what I say? Hah, hah! 

By contrast, condominiums in four buildings where the Trump logo was removed at the behest of residents — sometimes after a legal battle — have seen their value shoot back up.

“This analysis cleanly identifies that it is the Trump brand that is responsible for the value deterioration,” Mr. Van Nieuwerburgh said. “Removing the Trump name from the building removes the loss associated with the name.”

Once again, you know what I say? Hah, hah! 

Depending on the analysis you use, Trump-named properties dropped by 23 percent or 17 percent between 2013 and 2023, based on price per square foot.

Those four buildings that took those big ol' (fool's) gold letters off were up when compared to the overall Manhattan condo market. 

The analysis focused on Manhattan.

It is possible that Mr. Trump’s brand is faring better in parts of the country where the former president’s politics are more aligned with a majority of voters, including in Florida, which is home to his Mar-a-Lago resort, as well as numerous towers in Sunny Isles Beach and Hollywood, Fla., that are adorned with his name.

Eric Trump, the guy who used to be allowed to run the Trump Organization, has rebutted the figures that show Trump properties lagging. Naturally, Eric's rebuttal takes the form of a lie, complaining that Trump condos "sell for the highest prices per square foot of any properties in the world." The Times pointed out that a condo Eric cited sold for more than $4,600 per squre foot, while a larger condo in a more prestigious (i.e., non-Trump) building went for over $11,400 per square foot. (Big yikes to both those price per square foots.)

On the list of 2023's top 100 sales, the highest position that a condo in a Trump-branded building achieved was 47th.  

The only thing I'm willing to give any credit to Trump for is something I learned from the article. I hadn't realized that he helped the turnaround of the Grand Central Station area by developing the Grand Hyatt that replaced to Commodore Hotel there. When I traveled to NYC, which I used to do a lot on business, that Grand Hyatt was one of my favorite places to stay. I don't remember it as being Trumpily garish, but I may have just been too enamored of the location.

As for the Trump unbranded buildings:

In 2012, Linda Gottlieb, the producer of the film “Dirty Dancing” didn’t think much about having to walk under a Trump sign every time she entered her building. Her high-rise at 160 Riverside Boulevard was part of “Trump Place,” a group of six towers — three of them rentals, and three of them condos — that stretched over multiple blocks overlooking the Hudson River at 120, 140, 160, 180, 200 and 220 Riverside Boulevard.

In some of the buildings, everything from the doormats to the staff’s uniforms was branded with the Trump name.

But as the 2016 presidential election approached, and the crude remarks that Mr. Trump had made about women and immigrants dominated the news cycle, Ms. Gottlieb felt ashamed.

“I was embarrassed,” she said, describing how she felt when she passed maintenance staff born outside the United States. “Every time I looked at them, I thought, how can they be working in a building like that, and how can I not try to do something about it?”

So she helped with a petition to get rid of the Trump name. By election day, the name Trump was off the rental buildings. Midway through Trump's term - his one and only term, we pray - his name was off the condo buildings, too.

“Now, I just enjoy the view of the river when I come home,” she said, “and I think, it’s so nice to be in a building with just a boring number on it.”

Me? I'm just looking forward to the day when the Trump name is on nothing. 

Well, other than the obvious.