Trump Organization to sell historic Washington D.C. lease for $375 million

The lease of a historic building in Washington D.C. could be sold to a Miami-based investment firm, as President Donald Trump could earn more than $100 million in a business move that sees him sell the lease of a historic building in Washington D.C.

The Trump Organization has signed a contract with CGI Merchant to sell its lease of Washington's Old Post Office Pavilion for a record-breaking $375 million, three people familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Washington Post.

Once the sale is complete, the Trump Organization would have to pay $170 million in loans to Deutsche Bank, from which it borrowed funding to renovate the historic building. The agency would get 15% of any remaining proceeds from a sale, as part of a provision that says it would have to pay the General Services Administration less than $10 million. That leaves Trump with more than $100 million in potential profits.

In 2013, the Trump Organization signed a 60 year lease deal with the federal government to turn Washington's historic Old Post Office Pavilion into a 275 room luxury hotel. The company spent $217 million transforming the building into a five-star hotel, including $194 million in redeveloping the entire building and $23 million on furniture. It opened its doors in October 2016.

In October, financial documents released by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform showed that Trump's luxury hotel lost more than 70 million dollars while he was in the White House.

If the sale was completed, it would become the highest per-room price for a hotel in Washington D.C., ahead of the Rosewood Hotel - previously Capella Hotel Georgetown, which sold for approximately $1.3 million per room.

The hotel brokers noted that the nature of the building, which is 122 years old, and its location could be factors that drove up the price of the contract. The proposed sale of the lease would mean that each room in the Old Post Office Pavilion costs about $1.43 million.

How often do you have a hotel built the way a hotel was built? Dan Hawkins of Berkadia Real Estate Advisors told The Post. The White House is located between the Capitol and the White House.