New York (AFP) – A New York judge on Thursday ruled that residents in a luxury Manhattan apartment building can remove the Trump name from their facade, ruling against the US president’s family real-estate firm.
The complex at 200 Riverside Boulevard on the Upper West Side is one of a series of buildings in the US financial capital that Donald Trump helped develop decades ago and called “Trump Place,” although he does not own them.
When the board considered removing the signage over fears it might reduce their property values in largely Democrat New York, lawyers from the Trump Organization — his umbrella company — threatened legal action.
The firm argued that the terms of their licensing agreement require the 46-floor building to display the Trump name, but New York Judge Eileen Bransten sided with the condo’s board.
Reading her decision from the bench in Manhattan, Bransten ruled that the license agreement does not obligate the building to display Trump signage.
In 2016, some residents launched a petition even before Trump was elected president, demanding that his name be removed from the building to protest his treatment of women, attacks on immigrants and “history of racism.”
Since the Republican billionaire’s election in 2016, three other buildings in New York have removed the Trump name, The Washington Post reported.
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request to comment.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.