Trump and real estate
Donald John Trump Sr. was elected 45th President of the United States of America. Born in 1946 in New York, he keeps a very strong connection with this city, where his name is synonymous with luxury real estate. The fourth child of Fred Trump, a wealthy local developer, he joined the family business in 1968 to manage middle-class apartments in the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island neighborhoods. But his ambitions are quite different: thanks to his father's help, which provides him with a large sum of money to start, he takes part in a real estate project that he manages to make profitable within two years, increasing the occupancy rate. of the complex from 34% to 100%.
Building on his early successes, Donald Trump moved to Manhattan, New York's most exclusive neighborhood, in the early 1970s. It was there that his career would take a different turn.
He began by renaming the company Elizabeth Trump & Son (founded in 1923) to the "Trump Organization". In 1983, he built the first skyscraper in his name, the Trump Tower, located on Fifth Avenue, Manhattan's most chic thoroughfare. Culminating at 202 meters (more than the height authorized thanks to the purchase of the rights to build neighboring plots), it houses the offices of his company, as well as those of the insurer Equitable Life. Built in reinforced concrete and covered with glass, it is distinguished by the establishment of trees on the lower terraces, arranged in tiers, and by the imposing 24-meter-high atrium which houses an artificial waterfall. The last three floors constitute the “penthouse” of Donald Trump, who establishes his main residence there. There followed a number of projects with showy architecture, in order to gain visibility and notoriety, mainly in New York, but also in other American cities (Chicago, Atlantic City, Las Vegas - the famous golden tower that many media have presented it as his home).
Grandeur, decadence ... and rebirth
However, in the early 1990s, the real estate and hotel markets experienced a turnaround. Between 1991 and 2009, six establishments bearing Trump's name went bankrupt.
In the weekly "Newsweek" (which still existed in paper format, before choosing the Net and disappearing from radar screens) in 2011, the businessman declared: "I am making the bankruptcy laws work in my favor. ". In 2005, he founded Trump University, which offers education in real estate, asset management and entrepreneurship. But the institution was dissolved in 2010 to become "The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative". The organization was neither accredited nor recognized as an official university or private school, and its training did not qualify for any university credit.
Nothing to worry about the tycoon, who has also diversified into the entertainment industry: organization of wrestling matches and cycling competition - the "Trump's Tour" - a reality show featuring him or a welcoming golf course international competitions. The magazine "Forbes" estimated the fortune of Donald Trump at 4.5 billion dollars in 2015, a figure that the concerned denies: he assures that the amount is in fact double! In any case, his campaign would have cost 300 million dollars, against 700 million for Hillary Clinton (source: site opensecrets.org). Today elected at the head of the United States, he is not yet certain what should become of his real estate empire, which should, logically, fall to one of his children (Donald Junior, Ivanka or Eric ). It remains to be seen whether the White House will also be renamed "Trump House".
Article published on the Batiactu.com site, signed by Grégoire Noble, adaptation by François Berset.
