The Plaza Hotel, Manhattan, N.Y.C.
Trump truly adored owning this building. And, why not? It’s an American icon immortalized in those darling Eloise children books and by the Beatles’ stay for the 1964 U.S Beatlemania premiere. The Plaza even cameos in the quintessential American novel, The Great Gatsby. It represented power, wealth and high society. Trump treasured The Plaza, he infamously called it a “masterpiece,” “the Mona Lisa,” and so he didn’t even peep after losing $550 million and having to file for bankruptcy. Trump bought The Plaza for $390 million in 1988 and precipitously appointed Ivana Trump president of the luxury hotel. He admittedly overpaid to acquire the N.Y.C. iconic building, pouring more money into renovating it, but the income didn’t pay the bills.
It wasn’t the only investment glitch at the time, and the Trump Organization briefly collapsed under $2 billion in debt by 1990. Ivana and Donald split by 1992. After selling his share in 1995, things started to pick up for the Organization again. At the end of the day, all he has left of The Plaza is his function as a minority partner.
Ivanka Trump’s Trump Park Avenue Home
In 2009 Jared and Ivanka joined their lives at Trump National Bedminster Golf Club in New Jersey. No cost was spared. Her gorgeous gown rang up to $50,000 itself, with an added expense of $220,000 to adorn with jeweled accessories. They would then move into their starter home, a 4,200-square-foot, four-bedroom spread at Trump Park Avenue tower on the Upper East Side in 2011. With a darling nursery in one of the rooms, they set off on building a family.
The penthouse was theirs for about $10.2 million. The stylish digs, designed by Manhattan decorator Kelly Behun, were featured in Elle Decor, but by now they’ve relocated the family to D.C., obviously.
The Hotel St. Moritz Investment
Trump bought the St. Moritz, another Emery Roth design, in 1982 for $72 million and sold it for $180 million in 1985. With major real estate investors vying for the Hotel St. Moritz building and property, it seemed like a huge loss for Trump when he had to sell it. Although he really wanted to develop the property next to Central Park with classier digs and the modern mirrored-glass and stainless façade and was reportedly livid when it was sold from under him, in essence, he flipped the property and more than doubled his investment when he sold it to Australian yachtsman and brewery magnate, Alan Bond, for $100 million more than he got it.
In 1997 he hoped to get a piece of the renovation project once more, but it was sold from under the investors to another investment group who partnered with the Ritz. The building was gutted and remodeled in 2002, transforming it into The Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park with the top eleven floors available as sprawling penthouse apartments.
Ivana’s Upper East Side Townhouse
Marrying the ostentatious real estate mogul, Donald Trump, in 1977, Ivana was raised in opulence and cultivated for extravagance. The Czech-born diva took to the lifestyle like a fish to water, flamboyantly treasuring her lifestyle as Trump’s wife—model, socialite, fashionista. That ended when a Washington Post columnist approached Ivana Trump and informed her of her husband’s unfaithfulness. With the $25 million settlement, she picked up a swank Upper East Side townhouse that has twelve, or fifteen, bedrooms, she’s not sure. . . One of her favorite rooms is the leopard print room where she takes in some lounging time before heading off to the office, a few flights down.
She has a leopard print room in all over her abodes but splits her time predominately between N.Y.C., Miami and her place in the South of France. She likes to stay local because she’s digging her new “Glam-ma” lifestyle, as her nine grandkids call her. She and President Trump are still in contact, speaking once a month. Truth is, Ivana was the one who broke the news to him last year about Vanessa, wife of Don Jr.’s five children, filing for divorce due to an extra-marital affair. She said he was not happy about it, and she’s sad about it herself. However, wondering if Vanessa couldn’t forgive Don Jr., she told People, in classic Ivana vernacular, “[... .] I honestly don’t know that many men who can keep their zippers up.” As for her opinion on politics and family, she thinks Trump shouldn’t run for a second term and says politics are a “dirty” business.
Trump Bay Street, Jersey City, NJ
Trump Bay Street is an upscale, 50-story residential tower erected across the Hudson River with views of Lower Manhattan. It’s related to Trump in name only, only under license does it represent Trump, neither does The Trump Organization have any stake in Trump Bay Street. This did not prevent peeved protesters from loitering in front of the tower with the president’s name on it in 2017. Meanwhile, Jared Kushner Companies, who hold a 12.5 percent share in Trump Bay Street, helped fund the project by hooking up their foreign investors with a $50 million subsidized federal loan-rate, ironically citing the property’s close proximity to the area’s low-income poverty district.
Kushner Cos. also procured a five-year tax break from the city for their investors. The luxury apartment building which opened its doors to wealthy renters in the fall of 2016, is located adjacent to its twin, the Trump Plaza apartment tower, in name mostly, which was completed in 2008. Jared, Ivanka’s husband, is now a senior adviser to Trump. Due to this new role, Kushner has divested himself of many Kushner properties, but remains involved with Trump Bay Street, holding a two percent stake.