Mar 7, 2024,06:30am EST
The $540 million, and counting, that Donald Trump owes due to recent lawsuits in New York is merely a fragment of the former president’s escalating financial strain.
Within the next five years, encompassing the duration of the subsequent presidential term, Trump faces approximately $780 million in mortgages maturing, representing only a portion of the over $1 billion in debt against his assets. While Trump does possess more time to strategize his approach to handling these loans compared to the $83.3 million owed to E. Jean Carroll, due this Saturday, his window is narrow – his initial mortgage deadline looms in July.
Let’s delve into the details of Trump’s debt load, the entities to which he is indebted, and the deadlines by which he must settle his obligations.
Values of all properties are as of September 2023.
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1. Trump Plaza
Total value: $30 million
Debt: $12 million
Creditor: Ladder Capital
Due: July 6, 2024
The first mortgage that Trump has to pay off totals $12 million against Trump Plaza. Not to be confused with the shuttered (and later exploded) Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino or the Plaza Hotel that Trump sold in 1995 after dragging it into bankruptcy, Trump Plaza is a co-op building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Trump’s company doesn’t own the building but rather has a leasehold on the retail space, a parking garage and two brownstones.
The firm that originally helped make the loan to Trump in 2014 was Ladder Capital, which employed Jack Weisselberg, the son of former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, who got out of prison for tax fraud last April and just pleaded guilty to perjury. Ladder Capital no longer holds the debt, having quickly chopped up the original $15 million loan and sold it off as bonds to investors.
ALPEYRIE\ULLSTEIN BILD
2. 40 Wall Street
Total value: $205 million
Debt: $121 million
Creditor: Ladder Capital
Due: July 6, 2025
When New York Attorney General Letitia James recently told ABC News that she was prepared to seize Trump’s assets if he fails to pay the full amount, she singled out this property. “I look at 40 Wall Street each and every day,” James reportedly said, of Trump’s Lower Manhattan building. It’s no surprise that James took notice of the glamorous 63-story skyscraper built like a wedding cake, with a wide base giving way to narrower upper floors, all sitting underneath a copper crown and located in a prime location. Once the tallest building in the city and a block away from the New York Stock Exchange, it was owned by the former dictator of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, in the 1980s.
What many people don’t realize is that, like Trump Plaza, the ex-president doesn’t own the building. Instead, he has a 64-year-ground lease that is scheduled to expire in 2059. Ladder Capital loaned Trump $160 million in 2015 but almost immediately sliced it up and sold it off with dozens of other properties to investors. So if Trump walks away, he’ll apparently be screwing a bunch of anonymous individuals—something that may bother him less than having to fork over a huge chunk of money to settle his debts.
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3. Trump International Hotel & Tower
Total value: $10 million
Debt: $6 million
Creditor: Ladder Capital
Due: August 6, 2026
This skyscraper overlooking Central Park is home to Jean-Georges, the Michelin-starred restaurant where Mitt Romney famously met with Trump about a cabinet position he never received. Trump owns the retail space and parking garage. Ladder loaned the ex-president $7 million in 2016.
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4. 555 California
Total value: $480 million
Debt: $360 million
Mortgage originator: JPMorgan Chase
Due: May 2028
Trump owns 30% of this three-building complex in San Francisco’s Financial District, while Vornado Realty Trust has the rest. The property generates enormous rents today, but Trump did not want it at first, and even took his initial Hong Kong business partners to court when they decided to sell a partially developed project on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and use the proceeds to buy this building.
Tenants include Bank of America, Microsoft and, at least as of 2020, the Qatar Investment Authority–meaning that during Trump’s presidency, the Trump Organization was the landlord to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, which did not appear to actually be using the space.
In May 2021, JPMorgan Chase helped Vornado and Trump secure a $1.2 billion, variable-rate loan, allowing them to extract more than $600 million out of the building. But inflation was already creeping upwards. So Steven Roth, the CEO of Vornado, protected his firm by executing a three-year swap, replacing the variable rate on his firm’s $840 million portion of the loan with a fixed 2.26% rate. Trump, however, didn’t, allowing the interest expenses to fluctuate on his $360 million share. As of May 2023, he was contending with an estimated 5.93% rate at the property, putting him on track to hand over $21 million of annual interest expenses–$13 million more than he would have if he had followed Roth’s lead.
ANTHONY BEHAR/SIPA USA/NEWSCOM
5. 1290 Avenue of the Americas
Total value: $570 million
Debt: $284 million
Mortgage originator: JPMorgan Chase
Due: November 2028
In a deal similar to 555 California, Trump has a 30% minority stake in this Manhattan skyscraper a few blocks away from Trump Tower while Vornado owns the rest. As with 555 California, Trump went to court in 2005 to try and prevent his partners at the time, a group of investors from Hong Kong, from purchasing this property. Vornado, which bought out the Hong Kong-based group in 2007, tried to sell both buildings in 2020. But it was unable to find a buyer willing to pay its $5 billion asking price, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Tenants in the office and retail space include Columbia University, the Hachette Book Group and streaming service FuboTV. As of April 1, four floors with more than 230,000 square feet will be unoccupied, according to Vornado’s website.
JOHN MINCHILLO/AP
6. Seven Springs
Total value: $30 million
Debt: $5.4 million
Creditor: Bryn Mawr Trust Company
Due: 2029
Trump bought this estate in Westchester County, New York for $7.5 million in 1996 hoping to develop it into a golf course or housing developments. When local opposition and environmental concerns prevented those plans from coming to fruition, he promised in 2015 to preserve 159 of its 213 acres in exchange for a $21 million tax break, the Washington Post reported.
Eric Trump, who spent his summers there as a kid, was questioned during his father’s recent civil fraud trial about Seven Springs, one of the family’s most egregiously inflated properties. Eric had pushed to value seven of its undeveloped plots that had been intended for mansions at $161 million, while a professional appraiser pegged them at $14 million.
ERIK MCGREGOR/LIGHTROCKET
7. Trump Tower
Total value: $156 million
Debt: $100 million
Creditor: Axos Bank
Due: 2032
In February 2022, Trump refinanced his flagship property, borrowing $100 million from Axos Bank, formerly Bank of Internet USA, to pay off a $100 million loan from Ladder Capital that was coming due that September. “Trump Tower is one of the most iconic properties in the world and sits on arguably the most prestigious corner in all of New York,” Eric Trump said in a statement at the time. “We have incredibly low debt, have a tremendous amount of cash and have an extremely profitable company. We had no problem refinancing.”
Axos CEO Gregory Garrabrants has contributed $9,600 in support of Trump’s campaigns since 2012, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
Trump also owns the penthouse in Trump Tower, but it’s a separate entity, worth an estimated $52 million, and is debt free.
DAVID CANNON/GETTY
8. Trump National Doral
Total value: $291 million
Debt: $125 million
Creditor: Axos Bank
Due: 2032
Trump also refinanced his Miami resort in 2022, just before a loan of about $125 million from Deutsche Bank was to come due the following year. Revenue at the resort was down during Trump’s presidency, even before the Covid pandemic. It appears to have rebounded since, according to an analysis of financial disclosures he filed with the government. Trump National Doral is set to host LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed tour, for a three-day tournament in April.
9. 1125 S. Ocean Blvd
Total value: $46 million
Debt: $10 million
Lender: Professional Bank
Due: 2048
Trump will be 102 when his loan on this residential property comes due, so he’s probably not too worried about it. Plus, values have soared since Trump paid his sister $18.5 million for the property in 2018. They still aren’t up quite as high as Trump would have liked. In 2022, he listed the home for sale but took it off the market when he wasn’t able to find a buyer willing to pay the $59 million asking price.