A movement is afoot in a couple of the Trump Place buildings on Riverside Boulevard below 72nd Street to have the name of their buildings changed. Donald Trump’s company developed some of those buildings and then sold them to various other companies; Trump International Realty continues to manage 200, 220, and 240 Riverside Boulevard, according to the website Brick Underground.
Brick Underground got ahold of a letter being passed around at 220 Riverside Boulevard asking tenants to weigh in on a possible name change. It says that 57 homeowners and 24 renters signed a petition asking for the removal. We’ve posted it below.
Brick quoted one tenant who is behind the push for a name-change.
“It’s embarassing to live in the building,” the woman said. “I’ve had lots of friends make comments about it. My kids are so disgusted with Donald Trump that they find it viscerally uncomfortable to live in a building that has his name on it.” She says many of her neighbors feel the same way and want to rid the property of its association with Trump as soon as possible.
The letter points out that the building at 220 is named “Trump Place”, but 240 is called “The Heritage” despite having the same management.
But changing the name could cost a pretty penny.
“[We heard] it would cost between $200,000 and $1 million to replace the name, which would cut into the capital fund of the building,” she explains. “So does it make financial sense as a protest to remove a name when there could be other capital expenses that the building could incur, and how exactly would the building even assess that?”
Residents of 160 Riverside Boulevard are also petitioning Equity Residential to change the name of their building. That online petition had 272 signatures as of Sunday, Oct. 23. Neither the Trump nor Equity Residential reps responded to Brick.