Trump Hotel in Historic D.C. Post Office Building to Be Sold and Reflagged as a Waldorf Astoria

The Old Post Office building in Washington, D.C.

The Trump Organization is slated to close on a deal to sell the lease to the crown jewel of its hotel operation, the luxury property located in the historic Old Post Office Building in Washington, D.C., for $375 million by the end of the month

The new owners, CGI Merchant Group, an investment firm, will reflag the property as a Waldorf Astoria in partnership with Hilton Worldwide.

This is not the Trump Organization’s first deal with Hilton.  In 1985, it purchased for a $300 million the at-the-timeunopened Atlantic City Hilton Hotel, a 624-room structure in the gaming center’s marina area, Trump spokesman John Baron told the New York Times at the time.  The property was sold at a tremendous loss in 2011.  John Baron, it was later revealed, was a pseudonym used by Donald Trump in the 1980s.

This time is different, however, as the sale of the Old Post Office lease will generate a profit of $100 million for Trump, according to multiple media reports.

The Old Post Office Building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The hotel has 263 guest rooms, 35 of which are suites, including the Trump Townhouse, a 6,300-square-foot (585-square-meter) space with a private entrance that is likely to be renamed after the reflagging.

The property was originally put on the block in the fall of 2019 but the ensuing pandemic thwarted sales efforts.

The hotel itself is located on Pennsylvania Avenue, less than a mile from the White House. That 1899 building was slated for demolition in the 1970s but was spared thanks to a successful campaign by what is now known as the D.C. Preservation League. After a bidding process that included ten formal proposals, the GSA awarded a 60-year lease to the Trump Organization in 2013. The lease required Trump to restore the building’s stonework, original wood milling, and paneling to their original 19th century condition.

What is now referred to as the Old Post Office was built before Congress imposed height limitations in the district in 1910 and is the city’s second tallest building. It stands 315 feet (96 meters) high and is exceeded only by the 329-foot-tall (100-meter-tall) Basilica of the National Shrine of Immaculate Conception.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)