Trump Organization in Talks to Repurchase Former D.C. Hotel: Report
The organization sold its leasehold on the property to CGI Merchants Group in 2022 for $375M
By Nick Trombola January 10, 2025 1:50 pm
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As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to re-enter the White House, it appears that his family business wants its name back up on another building along Pennsylvania Avenue.
The Trump Organization has reportedly renewed talks with Michael Dell’s BDT & MSD Partners, which owns Waldorf Astoria Washington DC, to buy back rights to the property, formerly known as Trump International Hotel, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited a confidential source.
Trump’s son Eric Trump met with a BDT & MSD executive vice president at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., earlier this week to discuss a potential deal, per the WSJ. If a deal is ultimately reached, The Trump Organization would likely purchase BDT & MSD’s long-term lease on the property, as the land is formally owned by the federal government. Such a purchase could cost upwards of $300 million, per the WSJ sources.
Representatives for both BDT & MSD and the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The hotel’s recent ownership history, and Trump’s connection to it, are complicated. The federal government leased the property at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, one of the tallest buildings in the District and also known as D.C.’s Old Post Office, to the Trump Organization in 2012 for a 60-year term. The organization spent the following four years, and $200 million, renovating the space, which formally opened before Trump’s first election win in 2016.
Trump’s family ownership of the hotel became a source of controversy for the president, due to profit received from foreign dignitaries renting rooms at the hotel during Trump’s term.
About five years passed, and in 2022 the Trump Organization sold the leasehold on the hotel, just southeast from the White House, to Miami-based CGI Merchant Group, in partnership with Hilton, for $375 million. CGI and Hilton quickly rebranded the hotel as a Waldorf Astoria property, having secured a $285 million financing package from BDT & MSD.
Yet just two years later, in early 2024, CGI defaulted on $252.7 million in outstanding debt tied to the property. BDT & MSD ultimately cast the sole $100 million bid for the hotel at a foreclosure auction in August.
Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.
