Donald Trump hinted on Sunday that he might sell a building to finance his presidential campaign.
How realistic is that, given that the election’s little more than five months away and it can take that long just to find a buyer for large properties?
But if Trump wants a cool half-billion dollars (at least), it strikes us that 40 Wall St. would be a prime candidate for sale. The landmark Art Deco office tower, which he snatched up for between a mere $1 million and $10 million in 1995 (it’s hard to pin down because it was technically a 500-year leasehold purchase), is worth easily $500 million today.
It’s one of the few buildings that Trump owns in its entirety. He owns only the retail and office space at Trump Tower, for example, and is a minority partner with Vornado in 1290 Sixth Ave.
In 2004, as we reported at the time, Trump briefly put 40 Wall on the market via CBRE for $400 million, but decided to pull the offer.
The city’s most prolific investment-sale broker, Eastdil Secured’s Douglas Harmon, declined to comment on 40 Wall but said, “Donald has some valuable Manhattan retail condos and other property pieces that would be attractive to a wide swath of buyers.” He should know: Harmon last year sold the Crown Building, which is diagonally across from Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, for $1.75 billion.
Trump didn’t get back to us.