Leticia James has announced that NY will confiscate all of Trump’s NY property, including Trump tower, if he doesn’t or can’t pay the $354 million fine. I don’t see how they can do that, since Trump only has a 30% stake in the building.
The interesting part here is that Trump tower contains 2.1 million square feet of floor space, with 98% of it currently leased at about $100 per square foot. Trump’s 30% stake in the tower nets him $62 million a year. So overall, the building brings in $210 million a year in rent. The judge in the case found that Trump lied about the value of the building, which Trump claimed was $806 million. The judge claims that the building is worth only $40 million. I am not a billionaire tycoon, nor am I a NY judge or a NY real estate expert, but I think that a building that brings in $210 million a year in rent is worth more than $40 million.
Similarly, the judge in the case claims that Trump’s Mar a Lago in Palm Beach is only worth between $18 million and $27 million. That’s bullshit, and I can easily prove it. Just a block away in Palm Beach is 1200 S Ocean Blvd. That house is a 12,000 square foot home located on 3.4 acres with 9 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms. The lot borders on the Atlantic ocean on the east, and A1A to the west. It’s estimated value is $110 million, or about $9,100 per square foot. Another home which just sold in 2022 for $9.5 million and located less than a mile from Mar a Lago is a 1900 square foot 3/3 home on a third of an acre that doesn’t border the water at all. It works out to $5,000 per square foot.
Contrast those two homes with Mar a Lago- a 16,500 square foot home located on 17 acres of land. If we are to believe the judge, this resort is worth 5 to 10 percent per square foot of the two homes above?
Or you can instead view it as the commercial property that it is. The Mar-a-Lago Club had $29.7 million in gross revenues in 2015, $25.1 million 2017, $22 million in 2018, and $21.4 million in 2019. So it brings in $20 to 30 million a year in revenue. Again, hard to claim that a business brings in 100% of its value each year.
As I have been saying- the left is going to destroy Trump. I don’t think that simply making him a pauper is going to be enough. He will wind up in prison, where he will be killed pour encourager les autres.