U.S. authorities allowed Trump to sell Trump International Hotel in Washington

The U.S. Administration’s Office of General Affairs has allowed former President Donald Trump’s family to sell to a branch of the Hilton hotel chain the lease rights to the Trump International Hotel, located in downtown Washington, D.C.

The buyer will be investment firm CGI Merchant Group of Miami, Florida, which intends to remove the former White House leader’s name from the facade and has agreed with Hilton to manage and brand the hotel. According to The Wall Street Journal, the sale of the rights to the hotel would cost $375 million.

According to the statement, the department, which serves as landlord on the federal government side, “announced confirmation that CGI meets the criteria of the recipient” of the rights to the hotel. Once the deal is finalized, it will bear the Waldorf Astoria name.

In November 2020, Trump’s company indefinitely suspended attempts to sell the lease rights due to a lack of willing investors in the requested $500 million.

The post office, built more than 120 years ago on Central Washington Boulevard just a few blocks from the White House, was converted to the Trump International Hotel for $210 million. The building is owned by the federal government and was leased on a long-term lease to the Trump Organization, which has pledged to pay $3 million annually for 60 years. The current deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter of this year.