The Old Post Office Building will soon be home to a Waldorf Astoria hotel.

Tyrone Turner / DCist/WAMU

The family of former President Donald Trump has sold the lease to the building that was home to Trump International Hotel, clearing the way for an investment company to convert the hotel into a Waldorf Astoria.

The $375 million sale of the government lease to Miami-based CGI Merchant Group was finalized on Wednesday, according to the New York Times. The deal includes an agreement with Hilton, which would manage the property.

The Trump Organization, which operated the hotel, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Trump won a 100-year-lease on the building in 2012 from the federal government, which still owns the site on Pennsylvania Avenue known as the Old Post Office Building. During his presidency, the hotel, recognizable by gold lettering branded to its façade, doubled as a watering hole for Trump supporters, Republican lawmakers, and lobbyists.

The use of the hotel was a focal point of a lawsuit leveled by D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine against Trump in 2020. Racine accused the former president’s inaugural committee of violating the city’s nonprofit law by illegally overpaying for a hotel ballroom that was used to celebrate Trump’s 2017 inauguration, enriching his family.

Trump’s family business and the committee ultimately agreed to pay the District $750,000 to settle the lawsuit. Both have denied wrongdoing.

“No one is above the law – not even the president,” Racine said after the settlement was announced earlier this month.

The hotel is also the subject of federal investigations into conflicts of interest during Trump’s presidency. Last year, the House Oversight Committee revealed Trump received $3.7 million in payments from foreign governments to the hotel while he was in office, which he did not properly disclose or pay back to the federal government.

To many liberals and D.C. residents, the hotel turned into a symbol of government corruption, and became a site for protests following Trump’s many controversies.

Weeks after the 2016 election, Robin Bell, a local artist, started projecting anti-Trump messages on the building that went viral and captured national attention. One read “EXPERTS AGREE: TRUMP IS A PIG.”

In April 2020, protestors lined faux “body bags” outside the hotel to protest Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Demonstrators said they wanted to counteract protestors in other parts of the country who openly defied social distancing and other mitigation measures.

The Trump family could profit up to $100 million from the sale, according to the Associated Press.

The new lease holders of the Pennsylvania Avenue site appeared to move quickly to rebrand the hotel. Signs announcing the Waldorf Astoria were spotted Thursday morning.

At least one feature of the hotel may remain: Sushi Nakazawa, a restaurant located in the building, told Washingtonian last fall that the restaurant’s lease is not tied to the ownership of the hotel.

The new hotel is expected to open early summer, according to a news release from CGI Merchant Group.

“We are thrilled to partner with our friends at Hilton to bring the Waldorf Astoria brand to an iconic landmark in the nation’s capital and look forward to working closely together to have a lasting and positive impact on the Washington, D.C. community,” said Raoul Thomas, the investment group’s CEO and founder.

Previously: 

Alex Rodriguez Could Soon Become A New Owner Of Trump’s D.C. Hotel

Trump To Pay D.C. $750,000 Settlement In Inauguration Funds Lawsuit

Trump Checked Out Of The District. Where Does That Leave His Hotel?

Filed Under: ag karl racine, trump international hotel,