RESIDENTS OF TRUMP NAMED BUILDINGS WANT THE “TRUMP” NAME REMOVED

…A building in Manhattan’s that had the TRUMP name removed

63% of condo owners in a New York high-rise also want to remove the TRUMP PLACE sign.

Many of you are probably aware that there are many high-rise buildings around the world with the name “TRUMP adorning their facades.

The reason for this is that for decades, Trump made serious branding efforts to license his name to high-end residential and office buildings around the world.  That effort has added the TRUMP name to over 50 buildings around the world.

In fact, back in the nineties, Trump helped to develop, but he does not own, a string of 6, high-end, high-rise, residential buildings in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.  And they all were licensed for one single dollar to be called “TRUMP PLACE”.

Now, it’s no secret that just as it is in most major cities on both coasts of the US, most of the coast’s major cities are all very liberal cities.  Since Trump became the latest Republican US President, and his views are highly different from those voters of a liberal persuasion, the residents of these buildings do not want to advertise that they live or work in a “TRUMP” labeled building.

Due to that concern, since the 2016 election, three of New York’s six TRUMP PLACE building have been successful in removing the TRUMP designation from their buildings.

As of this week, the condo board of the 200 Riverside Boulevard building in Manhattan’s Upper West Side called “TRUMP PLACE”, they will be in court asking a judge’s permission to take that name down off the building’s facade.

Last year, the board at 200 Riverside began to consider taking down its own TRUMP signs after some residents complained that the TRUMP PLACE name could reduce their property values in the highly liberal New York City.

However, a Trump Organization lawyer threatened the condo board with legal action saying that under the terms of the 18 year licensing agreement, the building was bound by a licensing agreement to display the Trump name.  

In response, the condo board sued the Trump Organization. The board wants the New York Justice, Eileen Bransten, to determine: “Does that licensing agreement require them to put up signs with Trump’s name? Or does it merely allow them to have the signs, if they want?”

Justice Bransten had stated in an earlier hearing: “The argument is about: ‘Can we…or must we…have ‘TRUMP’ on our building?’”

The up-coming hearing will be held in a courtroom in Lower Manhattan and it will focus on the condo board’s motion for a summary judgment.  If the motion is approved, Justice Bransten would simply declare the board the winners and the sign could come down.

But the Trump Organization’s lawyers have opposed the motion and they have asked Bransten to extend the case in order to gather more evidence. In particular, the Trump Organization has asked for details about which building residents complained about the Trump sign, and which ones supported keeping it.  (Up to this point, the vote to remove the name has been kept secret.)

The president’s company would not lose any money if the sign did come down.  As it is with the other Trump licenses, they only paid Trump the $1, and that was back in late 2000. The Trump Organization would still get paid to manage this building.  Both the managing contract and the license agreement run out in December 2019.

But Eric Trump, the president’s son, has said to continue the fight is still worth it.  Preserving the sign, he said, is preserving his father’s legacy as a developer.

“I will always fight vehemently against rogue individuals not only to protect our incredible [condo] owners,” Eric Trump wrote in an emailed statement. “But also to protect the legacy of a true visionary who did so much to shape the New York City skyline.”

But this case could also have much broader implications for the Trump brand 

In the past decade, Trump’s company focused aggressively on signing many license deals.  In these agreements, it got paid to put the Trump name on other company’s properties. But this placed the fate of Trump’s brand for buildings, partly in the hands of other people.  That being the building and condo’s owners and residents of Trump-branded buildings in highly liberal cities and in foreign countries.

As stated, the Trump name has already come down from the three former “TRUMP PLACE” resident buildings in Manhattan.  In addition, the Trump name has been removed from Trump-branded hotels in New York, Toronto and Panama City.

When other buildings have considered removing the name, the Trump Organization has responded with warnings that it would fight the changes in court.  The implication being that this fight might cost residents money for major legal bills.

However, in the case of 200 Riverside, a 46-story building on the Hudson River, that threat was delivered after the condo board had taken an informal poll of residents in February 2017. At that time, 63% of condo owners who responded wanted to remove the TRUMP PLACE sign.

Per Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, He wrote: “Please be advised that removing the sign would constitute a flagrant and material breach of the License Agreement.  If the board makes any effort to remove the sign, the Trump Organization will have no choice but to commence appropriate legal proceedings.”

But the condo board responded with the following filing: “Throughout the world, but especially on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, many persons associate the name ‘TRUMP’ with negative connotations, and many persons would prefer not to live in a building bearing the albatross-moniker ‘Trump Place.’”

The condo board has said that if Justice Bransten approves their motion, it will hold a formal vote about removing the “TRUMP PLACE” signs. If more than 50% of the unit’s owners still agree, the signs will come down.

But unfortunately, even in that arrangement, the board admitted that the official name of the building used in legal documents would still be “200 Riverside Boulevard at Trump Place”.  That would not change. That would require a two-thirds vote of the unit owners.  

At this point, the board has no plans to ask for such a vote, but that could change depending on how anti-Trump the residents and owners become regarding the current president.

Trump branded products are currently down to only 2 from the original 19 Trump branded items. If Trump gets in trouble (as expected) with the Robert Mueller III investigation, I believe you will be seeing those TRUMP building signs coming down on a regular basis.

Copyright G.Ater 2018