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Trump¹ Organization Cuts Ties To Controversial SoHo Hotel

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The Trump Organization said today it's cutting ties with one of its New York City hotel properties. The 46-story Trump SoHo has been plagued by questions about its financing from the time it was completed in 2008. And since the election, there have been signs its revenues have fallen. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.

JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE²: The company said it would sever³ its contract with the California firm that owns most of the hotel by the end of this year. The Trump Organization doesn't own the property itself. But it manages the hotel, and it gets paid a price for the use of the Trump brand name.

The building is a hybrid⁴ hotel-condo located near the upscale neighborhood of SoHo. Investors⁵ are allowed to live in the units for part of the year, but mostly the units are rented out as hotel rooms. The Trump SoHo was opened in a flurry of publicity⁶. Trump himself announced the project on an episode of "The Apprentice⁷."

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE APPRENTICE")

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Located in the center of Manhattan's chic⁸ artist enclave, the Trump International Hotel and Tower in SoHo is the site of my latest development.

ZARROLI: But the hotel faced strong opposition⁹ from neighborhood groups, and questions were raised about Bayrock, the firm that co-developed it. Among the principals of that firm was Felix Sater, a Russian-born former felon¹⁰ with ties to organized crime. A lawsuit¹¹ filed by one of the firm's executives alleged¹² that Bayrock was kept alive by money laundering¹³ and tax evasion¹⁴.

Trump himself was also sued by some of the building's buyers who said he had misrepresented the number of units sold. Trump later settled the suits, giving the buyers back nearly all of their money. After the real estate crash, Bayrock defaulted on a loan and was forced to give up the building, but Trump's name stayed on it. In recent years, there have been signs the property has struggled financially. Only a small number of the units have been sold to investors, and the main restaurant closed earlier this year. The restaurant's lawyers say it had struggled since Trump's election.

More recently, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been investigating the Trump campaign's ties to Russia and money laundering by Trump associates, and that has focused new attention on the property. Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.