Donald Trump is the greatest deal-maker ever. If you don’t believe that, then consider this story from Canada, where Trump will make a tidy profit off people who want nothing to with him. JCF Capital ULC, which owns the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Toronto, is so keen to get the Trump name off the building that it’s paying an undisclosed sum — said to be upwards of $6 million — to get out of a licensing agreement that slapped the Trump brand on the hotel complex. Since JCF Capital is a U.S.-based company, it remains to be seen whether a foreign company paying to distance itself from the president would violate the emoluments clause of the Constitution.
The Trump name is expected to be removed from the buildings as early as August 1, according to “a person with knowledge of the matter” who spoke to Bloomberg Politics anonymously, since the deal is confidential. It was not reported whether the source was snickering at the idea that getting shut of Donald Trump’s name was worth every penny, or Loonie, or however the Trump organization is being paid off.
The hotel, which was recently at the center of a fraud settlement decided by the Canadian SCOTUS, will probably be operated by Marriott International under their St. Regis brand. A new name for the building complex hasn’t been announced yet; maybe they could go with “The Sexxy Justin Trudeau Arms.”Rebranding the hotel is hoped to be the first step in rehabbing the troubled property, which in addition to construction delays and that lawsuit over fraudulent claims made in selling units as investments, has also become the focus for anti-Trump protests in Toronto, although Trump has no ownership in the building, just the now-dissolved licensing deal to slap his name on the building.
For some reason, unless they’re trying to suck up to the president, few renters and travelers are excited about living in a Trump building these days. The week after the election, the owners of Trump-branded luxury apartments in New York (built by but no longer owned by Trump) announced they’d take the Trump name off after residents demanded a change. Last October, the CEO of Trump Hotels announced that a new chain of hotels aimed at wealthy millennials would be new, exciting, luxurious, and unpolluted by the Trump name, being named “Scion” instead, since people would rather stay in a hotel that sounds like a failed Japanese car brand. Another line of stealth Trump hotels, called “American Idea,” will soon start operating in Mississippi.The Trump Organization would not comment on whether the president owns a stake in the recently-opened chain of boarding schools called “Tiffany? Do I have a daughter named Tiffany?”
Update: Yeah, I knew I’d make that typo: it really is “JCF Capital,” not “JFC.” Corrected, but I like the latter better.
[Bloomberg Politics via BoingBoing]
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