The Trumps are cutting ties with the five-star Trump SoHo hotel after business plummeted post-election

  • The Trump Organization is cutting ties with Trump SoHo.

  • The upscale hotel has struggled to fill rooms and bring in guests following the election.

  • A restaurant in the hotel closed earlier this year after "the Kardashians stopped coming" post-election.


Trump SoHo — the Trump Organization-run, five-star Downtown Manhattan hotel — will no longer carry the Trump name or be affiliated with the family.

On Wednesday, the Trump Organization reached a deal to allow the company to cut ties with the property, The New York Times reported.

According to The Times, the hotel has struggled to fill rooms and sell condominiums as President Donald Trump has risen in political prominence.

Koi, a restaurant located in the hotel, closed earlier this year after a reported drop in business following Trump's win in the 2016 election.

"Before Trump won we were doing great. There were a lot of people we had, our regulars, who'd go to the hotel but are not affiliated with Trump," Jonathan Grullon, a busser and host at the restaurant, told New York Magazine's GrubStreet. "And they were saying if he wins, we are not coming here anymore."

Another restaurant worker told GrubStreet that, following the election, "the Kardashians stopped coming" — and business plummeted. While Suzanne Chou, Koi Group's general counsel, "declined to speculate" why business declined, she said that "obviously since the election it's gone down."

A new restaurant called Spring & Varick recently opened in the space that formerly belonged to Koi.

Earlier this year, WNYC reported the five-star hotel was planning to lay off workers and reduce some of its services.

The hotel will continue to be owned by CIM, an investment firm in California. Now, however, the Trump Organization will no longer manage day-to-day operations or brand the hotel under the Trump name.

In 2010, the Major Economic Crimes Bureau of the Manhattan District Attorney's office opened an investigation into Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. for reportedly misleading buyers in the Trump SoHo project. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. dropped the case after receiving a donation from the Trump Organization's lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, as ProPublica reported in October.

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