Storied Trump Building Leases 268,329 SF in Less Than a Year

February 18, 2010
By Allison Landa, News Editor

Courtesy Flickr Creative Commons user Michael Zanussi

The Trump Organization seems to have made the cut with regard to its Trump Building on Wall Street. The company has sewn up leases for 268,329 square feet in less than a year – the most, they say, of any single downtown building.

Slightly more than a million square feet total, the building’s location at 40 Wall Street comes with a significant pedigree.

“They want that Wall Street address,” Donald Trump Jr., who is leading the sales team with CB Richard Ellis and special consultant Jeffrey Lichtenberg, told CPE. “We’re basically catty-corner from the stock market.”

The 72-story skyscraper was completed in only 11 months from 1929 to 1930 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. When Donald Trump Sr. bought the property in 1995, he did so after years of neglect. Trump restored the building to the former grandeur that once caused the building to be known as “The Crown Jewel of Wall Street.”

“We spend a lot of time fixing up the amenities,” Trump Jr. said. “The lobby is incredible … you have an incredibly high security level, a lot of the things that you’d expect from a Trump building, you’re getting here. It’s a very luxurious office building.”

According to Wired New York, the Trump Building boasts 3,500 Wausau windows and two 1,300-ton York Chillers along with the state-of-the-art safety and communications systems and new Italian marble and bronze lobby.

Though Trump was hoping to convert the upper floors to residential space, the idea proved too pricey and the building remains 100 percent commercial space to this day.

Of the building’s eleven new tenants, XO Communications took the most space: 20,586 square feet. They are followed by Accounting and Compliance International, which leased 11,729 square feet, and Infinitel Communications, which absorbed 7,900 square feet. The other tenants are Clancy Financial Services, Core Staffing Services, New York Global Group, RRZ Management, Oakwood Asset Management, Spyker Consulting, Direct Access Partners, and Managed Health Network. Trump declined to share financial information about the transactions.

He noted that each deal comes with its own set of challenges: “I don’t know that there was one that was particularly more egregious than others,” he said. “The challenge in any deal is figuring out what everyone really needs versus what they’re asking for.”

Another recent challenge – the foundering economy – did not deter Trump from an aggressive leasing approach. Without the encumberance of large mortgages, the company is able to see what the market is doing and be able to react accordingly.

“Our biggest secret is that we have a great balance sheet,” he said. “We’re not constrained by a lot of the things people bought in 2004, 2006, premiums that do not make economic sense today.”

Another plus for Trump is the ability to build with its own construction teams, something that Trump Jr. says gives people “a much better buildout for the buck.”

He and his team also spend substantial time getting to know the players in the downtown community, spreading the word about what the company can do and how fast they can do it.

“We’re really getting the first shot at any tenant in the market,” he said. “We’re really getting that first chance and it’s proving to be really successful. …. When you’re consistent with your message and you deliver, it makes it very easy for them to come back to you with secondary business.”