Crain's Downgrades Trump Organization On NYC's Biggest Companies List After Years Of Inflated Revenue Reports
As Donald Trump has become the most visible figure on planet Earth, his namesake business has lost serious stature in New York.
Crain's New York Business downgraded the Trump Organization from No. 3 to No. 40 on its list of the largest privately held companies in New York, citing a combination of factors led by the revelation through Trump's disclosures to federal regulators that the company had grossly overstated its annual revenue — the figures on the disclosure form were less than one-tenth of what it had self-reported to Crain's since 2010.
Another component of the precipitous drop has been declining condo prices at Trump Tower and Trump International Hotel and Tower, which have seen average sale prices drop by 23 and 24%, respectively, since 2015. Average condo sales in New York have held steady over the same time period.
As Trump SoHo remains a confusing quagmire of hotel rooms and condos, the business has dropped plans to build a Scion hotel in the city, choosing instead to build one in Mississippi, along with two of its budget American Idea hotels. Revenues and attendance at the Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point in the Bronx have also dropped sharply in the past two years.
Though Trump has been a public figure for decades, his victory in the 2016 presidential election seems to have had a deeply negative effect on his businesses in New York City, where 80% of voters chose Hillary Clinton. Trump's ascendance to the highest station in the country has also precipitated numerous federal investigations into potential conflicts of interest between his office and his international business interests, another cooling factor on his company's domestic revenue.
Even leaving aside politics, the Trump Organization's focus on luxury condos and hotels has left it out of the booming office market in New York City, where the biggest companies like SL Green and Vornado have made massive investments in the past few years. According to Miller Samuel, half of the 9,000 condos that have come online since 2015 remain unsold.
