Trump’s 40 Wall St. Revenue Slides as Pandemic Hurts Offices

(Bloomberg) -- The Trump Building at 40 Wall St. saw its revenue fall last year as tenants looked to get out of leases due to pandemic-related office closures, according to loan documents.

Revenue at the building in lower Manhattan fell to $27.7 million in the nine months through Sept. 30, according to the latest loan financial data. That's equivalent to around $37 million for 2020, a drop of more than 11% from a year earlier.

The loan's debt service coverage ratio, a measure of a company's ability to cover its debt payments with cash flow, declined to 1.24 times from 1.67 times for the same time period a year earlier.

The Trump Building offered concessions to some tenants on a case-by-case basis with the goal of keeping them long-term, according to the loan's financial commentary. Occupancy was 87.3% as of Oct. 27.

Watch List

The $137 million loan on the building, which is sponsored by Donald Trump, has been on a watch list since November after revenue and debt metrics declined amid the pandemic. It was packaged into a commercial mortgage-backed security with other debts and sold to investors in 2015.

The Girl Scouts' New York City chapter recently said it was exploring options to leave the building, part of a wave of companies distancing themselves from the former president following the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol. Chicago-based real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield, which has handled leasing at Trump properties including 40 Wall St. for years, also cut ties.

The coronavirus pandemic has hit office buildings throughout New York as tenants look to get out of expensive leases and workers remain at home. The Manhattan office availability rate rose to 14.9% in January, the highest in data going back to 2000, according to a report by Colliers International.

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